Vanished
by uscfbfan
Summary: What happens when Brennan vanishes from Angela's wedding reception? Based loosely on a Cold Case episode that recently aired. Please read and review.
1. Chapter 1

_Vanished:_

_Chapter One:_

Brennan stared around the concrete cellar that had become her room. The slate silk shantung bridesmaid dress was crumpled in the corner with one uncomfortable stiletto heel that Angela had made her purchase. It was all that remained of happier times which was six long months ago. She picked up her piece of chalk, wrote the date on the wall and the simple inscription, "I was alive." She sat back down on the cot and waited. Church bells were ringing in the distance as she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep dreaming of happier times and hoping that he would find her soon.

--

Booth paced around the evidence locker and pulled out box that was marked "Dr. Temperance Brennan." He pulled out the one shoe, her car keys, and her purse. All he wanted was to be close to her again. He wanted to remember the happier times, he wanted to hear her make fun of him again . . . just anything. Booth picked up the small bracelet, it wasn't her style. The bracelet was sterling silver and was about an inch across. He rolled it around in his hands.

"It was her favorite you know." Angela's voice filled the locker.

"Yeah." He smiled.

"Looking at the evidence isn't going to bring her back Booth. We all think that it is time you let her go." Angela whispered softly.

"I'm not letting her go. I am going to find her." Booth shot back.

"Seeley . . ."

"Angela, no! I promised Max I would take care of her, I promised her I would never leave her. I'm not giving up on her." He argued, placing the evidence back in the box.

"Booth . . ."

"Angela, I am not going to let her be some forgotten person, a cold case. I am going to bring her some justice." He swore. "Why did you come here Angela?"

"Photographer brought Jack and me our wedding pictures." She handed him a picture frame. "Just thought you would want one of you and Brennan together. She looked beautiful."

He stared at the picture. "Yeah, she looked really beautiful." Booth stared at the picture. There was a reflection of someone in the glass. "Hey Angela do you know the person in the reflection?"

She looked at the picture. "No."

"This could be the person who took Bones. I'm going to need to look at the rest of your pictures. We may have finally caught a break in who took Bones." He led her out of the locker, grabbing the picture that was taken.

--

Six months ago:

Booth smiled at his partner. She was standing next to him, the happy couple had just taken off in their limo. Both had a little bit much to drink.

"Hodgins sure knows how to throw a party." Booth commented.

"Yeah." Brennan sighed. Booth took off his coat and wrapped it around her shoulders. She looked deeply into his eyes. Booth leaned in and to his surprise she met him half way, their lips locked. Booth had imagined this moment for three years and he was going to commit her taste and scent to memory. "Booth?"

"Yeah Bones?"

"I want more." Brennan quietly confessed. He wrapped his arms around her and drew her closer to him.

"You have no clue how long I wanted to hear that." He whispered nipping at her ear.

"Booth," She pleaded his name. She had no clue how unbelievable sexy she sounded. Brennan grabbed Booth's hand and led him to the elevator. He shot a look at her. "Angela gave us all rooms here at the Hyatt that way we wouldn't have to drive back intoxicated. Stay with me."

"You sure?"

"Yes."

"Bones, there would be no going back." He confessed.

"I don't want to go back." She grabbed a fist full of his hair and kissed him hungrily. Consequences be damned. He wanted her and she wanted him, and that was all they needed for the moment.

The next morning a very hung over Booth woke up. He reached over for her and realized that she was gone. He cursed, halfway mad at her for leaving, halfway mad at himself for taking advantage of their drunk states. He got dressed, fumbling around to find his cell phone. Booth wasn't going to let her run away.

He walked down to the parking garage and saw Brennan's car still there. He canvassed the scene. A fight had taken place. Brennan's Mercedes car door was open, the blue silk bow had been ripped off her dress, and blood was all over the concrete.

He picked up his phone and called it in. "This is Special Agent Seeley Booth, I want to report a crime scene. My partner, Dr. Temperance Brennan had been kidnapped."

It was the longest wait of his life. The crime scene investigators collected all evidence from the scene. Her underwear had been pulled from her body, the bracelet he had given to her on the floor. The bridesmaid bouquet had been torn to bits. A message to him was written in lipstick on her windshield.

"SHE'S MINE NOW BOOTH!"

Booth stared at the sign, trying to figure out who would want to take her. He wrapped his brain around the idea of trying to connect her to any cases that they had. Maybe someone had taken her to keep her from discovering something. He wasn't currently working on any cases with her though.

Angela and Jack had came back from their honeymoon immediately when they had been contacted. Booth didn't want to do it, but he needed the best of the best on this case.

The forensic team ran the evidence, only finding evidence that it was Booth that had been with her, which he had to explain to his superiors. He hated that he had been even considered a suspect. He would have never hurt her, he loved her. Now all Booth wanted now was to see her again.

_AN: New story, new idea. Based loosely on an idea from the show Cold Case. Hopefully I didn't confuse anyone with the time changes. Please read and review._


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two:

Five months earlier:

Brennan cringed when she heard the door open. The creaking of the door opening normally only brought misery, cruelty. "I bought your supplies you need and a couple of other things."

Brennan stared at the notebook in her hands, it had been one of the only acts of kindness that had been bestowed upon her captivity. "A notebook for your thoughts." Her capture laughed cruelly, tossing it at her feet. She had been chained up to the wall. "I don't think anyone will really care though."

She looked up at him. "Booth will find me." He rewarded her with a resounding slap across her face which sent her sprawling down on the cold, hard concrete slab. She stood back up.

"Strength and courage I admire that." He sneered. She wanted to reach out and slap him but she knew she would be able to overtake him chained to the wall. He reached into the bag of supplies. "Water ration, food ration. Pregnancy test." He threw the test on the floor in front of her feet. "If you are pregnant, then I'll sell it on the black market, if you last that long."

Brennan stared at the test at her feet. "Please, no." She whispered picking it up after he slammed the door shut. She heard the sound of him and his accomplice laugh. She made her way over to the bathroom and did what she had to do. She stared at the two lines that told her she was pregnant and she sobbed. After composing herself she sat back down on her cot her hand resting on her stomach.

"Booth please find us." She whispered, knowing that logically he wouldn't be able to hear her, if he was even still looking.

About a mile away, Seeley Booth was leaving his church. He said a prayer to God that he would find her. He looked up into the sky. "I will find you Bones."

--

Present time:

Booth tore into the lab tossing the picture at Angela. "Angela, enhance the picture of the image in the glass, and when that is done I want you to run the picture through any data base to find a hit on this face."

"Does this have anything to do with Dr. Brennan?" Zack questioned.

"Yeah Zach, it does. When you are done come find me in her office. I am going to go through her stuff to see if there is anything I missed."

Booth stormed into the office and slammed the door. Zack looked down at the pictures. "Does he realize that this could be a long shot?"

Hodgins sat down next to his wife. "I guess the talk went well then." He told her sarcastically. "Does he realize that he will lose his job and son if he doesn't get his life together? We have to help him. I'll go talk with him."

Angela looked at her husband. "We will find her eventually, right?"

Zack started pulling out the photograph, "You do realize though that the odds are stacked incredibly against us of finding her alive though."

Angela stared at him, "I didn't want to hear that right now." She sighed, grabbing the picture from him, hoping that she would be able to find the bastard who was tearing apart the little group.

--

Hodgins crept through the door of Brennan's office. Nothing had been moved since she had vanished. Booth had his back turned away from him, and he was staring at a picture that was taken of her at one of her digs. She looked so young. Hodgins took a step close.

"Hodgins if you came in here to tell me to give up, I'll shoot you." Booth told him seriously.

Hodgins made his way over to him, "I should shoot you for putting my wife in tears. We all elected her to go over to your office today to tell you to let go, and it's not because we want you to, but because you have to." Booth started to interrupt with Hodgins held up his hand to forestall him, "Look Cullen came here today telling us that he didn't want to lose you as an agent, but you were devoting all your time and effort into a cold case, a dead end. It's not something that Dr. Brennan would want for you."

"I know Hodgins, I just don't think that she is dead." He replied.

"Brennan wouldn't want you to give up so much for her. You haven't done anything for the past six months except look for her, letting cases go to less capable agents. Dr. Brennan wouldn't want that. We aren't saying give up completely, but if you get thrown out of the FBI then we are going to have a snowball's chance in hell of finding her."

"I'll do my job, but she was a big part of this team." Booth replied. "I'll apologize to Cullen and do what I do, but in my spare time I will be doing nothing than looking for her."

"Booth, for what it's worth, I don't think she would give up so easily." Hodgins told him.

"You don't have to say that because you think that it is what I want to hear."

"I'm not saying it because you need to hear it, but because I know she wouldn't give up so easily. When we were trapped by the grave digger, she fought to live. She knew you would find her. She had faith in you." Hodgins said.

"I know the odds are stacked against us, but when we find her alive, I am never going to let her out of my arms again." Booth stood up out of the chair and set his jaw tight. "Call me when you have the image enhanced."

--

Booth had been summoned to Cullen's office almost immediately. His supervisor stared him down. "You know Booth, I know how hard it is to loose a partner."

"With all due respect sir, this is different." Booth explained. "She didn't quit, she didn't die, she just vanished, and if she is still alive, then someone is probably torturing her."

"Agent Booth, you know the likelihood of Dr. Brennan still being alive is not very high." Sympathy poured from the older agent's voice.

"I know Sir, but with all due respect, you don't know Bones. If anybody could survive it would be Bones. We found an image of someone at the wedding, it's a long shot, but . . ."

"Booth, you can still work on this case, but I'm bringing in a new set of eyes, Agent Sullivan has agreed to come back to help profile and search. He will be an asset. I'm not telling you to let go, but son, you have to start working on other cases."

"Yes Sir."

"Agent Sullivan will be here in an hour to collect the information and the start the profile. Booth, I really do hope that you find her." Cullen told him, effectively dismissing him from his office.

"Thank you sir."

Booth turned and walked out of the office, hoping that this lead would pan into something.

--

Several miles away tucked away in a cinder block room, Brennan watch helplessly as her capture closed the door. Her ankle was sore from where the shackles were cutting into it. She heard him wall up the door. She quickly ran to the door and pounded on it.

"NO!" She screamed over and over. Her capture stared coolly at her through his peep hole.

"This will break you!" Brennan sank to the ground, watching him place the last brick over the hole.

She slumped down to the ground. "Booth I need you please!"

--

Booth sat at his desk staring at a picture snapped of the two of them at an FBI function. "I will find you Bones." He vowed to no one in particular. "I will continue to fight for you, and I will bring you home." He grabbed his badge thanking God that Cullen understood. Sully was going to meet him at the Jeffersonian, and he had to pick Parker up soon. He knew that he was going to getting closer to her now.

**_AN: The Cold Case Episode was "The Road" it aired in March I think. Also if you haven't heard Come Home from One Republic - I highly recommend it. You know the drill, reviews rock my socks. Thanks for reading._**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

Booth stared off into space waiting for Tim Sullivan to arrive at the Jeffersonian. He always felt closer to Brennan in her office. He felt her presence more in the Jeffersonian more than anywhere else, maybe it was because she loved that place more than anywhere else. He watched as Parker poured over his math homework, he was learning addition and subtraction. His little boy was growing up so fast.

"Daddy?" Parker spoke up, putting down his pencil.

"Yeah Bub." He sat on the couch with him.

"I miss Bones." He confessed. "You are going to find her right?"

"I will keep looking for her." He confirmed to his son. Parker and Brennan had only spent a little time together, but the young child had grown quite an attachment to her.

"If anyone can do it, it's you Dad. You are a hero."

Booth regarded his son. Parker's world had been shaken in the year, with his mother running off with the most current of boyfriends and Bones disappearing, the child had proven to be stronger and more resilent then Booth had thought. He must have inherited more from him that what Rebecca wanted to admit. "Thanks Parks. Rosa will be here soon to take you to karate, and I will be home later on tonight."

"Okay Daddy." Parker picked up his pencil and went back to work. With the craziness of his life, Parker had been his one constant, his reason for getting out of bed, other than of course trying to bring Bones home.

Booth went to staring out Brennan's window, staring at the garden beneath them. It was the garden which his Bones had demanded full cooperation, the place where their working relationship had been forged.

"Booth . . ." Sully's voice resonated in through the doorway. Rosa was standing right behind him, ready to pick Parker up. Parker started packing his bag.

"Bye Daddy."

"Bye Parker." He told him, giving him a big hug. "I'll see you tonight." Booth turned to address Rosa, "I'll be home around 8:00."

"Yes Mr. Booth. I'll have a dinner plate waiting for you in the oven." She took the small boy's hand in hers and led him out the door.

"Thank you Rosa." He turned toward Sully and motioned for him to sit down.

"You look like crap." Sully mentioned as he took in his friends appearance. Sully had heard about Brennan's disappearance, he had called and said the moment they needed him to call.

"Well, the past half a year hasn't been exactly easy with Bone's abduction and Parker moving in."

"I'm working on the profile now based on the evidence. The perp would most likely be a quiet guy, probably somebody that no one would notice. He doesn't live a flashy life. A wage slave, probably finished high school and some college." Sully got finished explaining. "That is as far as I have gotten so far. Chances are Booth is that he has done this before, and probably has an accomplice."

"I have the face for the bastard." Angela informed him as she walked through the door. "I ran him through all the data bases, no hit yet. He was not a hotel worker or on the wait staff."

Booth looked at her, "How do you know that?"

"No uniform, and it is none of our guests." Angela told him. They had opted for a small wedding of about fifty people, so they knew everyone there. "What now?"

"We get the bastard's face on national tv. Someone is bound to know who he is." Sully replied. He took the sketch and the photo from her. "I'll also send this to all of the police stations. Booth, this is the first solid lead in months. We are closer to finding her."

"From your lips to God's ears." Booth stood up, clapping Sully on the shoulder. "I'll finish up here tonight."

"I'll schedule a press conference so we can get his face on national television tonight, and have it replayed tomorrow." Sully told him.

"Thanks Sully."

"Booth, we will bring justice to her." Sully affirmed.

"I just hope it is in time."

--

Andrew Miller watched his prisoner on the surveillance monitor. It had been a good investment considering he had to wall her up to break her strong will. He watched as she paced around the room, she was cradling her stomach, humming the tune of the church bells that was about two blocks away. How dare she, not being religious humming a religious tune!

Brennan paced, the shackles only preventing her to go so far. She looked at the supplies that she had left. She mentally calculated she only had enough food to last a month. Brennan knew that she hadn't gained enough weight and worried about the implications of not having proper care.

"You know Connor," She said addressing her stomach, "I never wanted children, but now all I want is to see you safe and happy, and back in your daddy's arms."

She let exhaustion over take her as she sat back down on her cot, pulling the oversized man's shirt tighter. Tears started pouring out of her eyes, the ones she kept at bay for months. She didn't know how much longer she could fight, and if it came to giving birth in this hell or sacrificing herself to keep her child from suffering, she knew what she had to do.

--

Booth tucked his son in bed. "I love you Parker." He kissed his son on the forehead, knowing that one day his son would no longer allow these moments to happen.

"I love you too Daddy."

Booth stood from his son's bed and switched on the Spiderman nightlight. He turned to close the door when he heard the sound of Parker praying.

"Hi God, it's me Parker Booth. Please bless everyone in my family and keep Daddy safe from harm. Help him find Bones so he won't be so sad anymore. Amen."

Booth shut the door quietly, and turned to go to the living room to watch Cullen's press conference. He prayed that this would bring him closer to bringing Bones home.

_AN: I like Parker. I had to bring him into the story somehow. I like Rebecca as well, but she just doesn't fit into what I envison the story to become. More flashbacks in the next chapter, the killer/captures may or may not be caught. Cases to come. Excitement to ensue._


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four:

Several weeks passed by after the news conference and with each passing day Booth felt his resolve slipping away. He sat in his office staring at pictures that adorned his wall. Several pictures were of course of Parker, others of his parents, and he only had one of the most important woman in his life hanging up in his office. It was snapped at a crime scene. They were standing together over a body and a photographer from the newspaper had snapped a picture of them. Being a close friend of Booth's he had sent him the picture.

He picked the picture up. It was the way he liked to remember her, full of life, searching for the truth. There was a sparkle in her eye that really lit up the room. God he missed that. He needed to be closer to her. Time ticked by as he finished up his paper work, he glanced up at the clock. It was almost lunch time. If his Bones was still around he would have taken her to go get pie, they would have settled a case and would have been celebrating. He picked up his cell phone and made his way back down to the evidence locker.

"Afternoon Agent Booth." The guard greeted him.

"Hi Arnie. I'm here to," Booth started.

"Dr. Brennan's again?" Arnie knew the man so well. Booth nodded while filling out the paperwork. Arnie opened the gate for him. "I'll be back with a cup of coffee."

Booth smiled at the young man and went over to the familiar box. He found an empty table and opened the box. He reached down and pulled out the small silver bracelet.

Flashback:

Booth walked into his partner's office. A call into Angela had confirmed that she hadn't left her office all night. "Hey Bones."

She was obviously startled. She looked up from the computer screen. "Booth, you startled me."

"You are so easy to sneak up on." Booth chided her; a charm smile started forming across his face.

"Don't think that your ridiculous smile is going to get you out of scaring me." She admonished him, halfway joking. She loved that smile, Parker had used it several times on her so she would help him with his homework. "Now why did you come here?"

"Can't a man just see his partner?" 

"Whereas that's a nice thought, I have a lot of work to do." 

"Bones, come on, come with me for a couple of hours. We will go get pie, have some coffee, walk around DC . . ." He rattled off. She just looked up at him, getting ready to shoot him down. "Come on Bones, spend some time with me. It's an important date."

"What's so important about it?" She questioned him.

"Oh, I'm hurt Bones." He feigned hurt, "It's our anniversary of becoming partners. We haven't had a case lately together, and I just want to spend some time with you."

She smiled at him. "Okay Booth." She got up from her desk. Booth helped her with her jacket. She smiled at him. "Thanks."

"No problem." He placed his hand on her back and led her out the door. They stood on the steps of the Jeffersonian, staring out at the garden.

"Booth, thanks for putting up with me." Brennan gave him a small smile. "Not many people do, and those that have, left me."

He took her by the shoulder and gazed into her blue eyes. "I won't leave you. Hey, let's not talk about sadness now." He reached into his pocket and pulled out his gift.

"Booth, I didn't get you anything."

"I don't expect anything. Just open it." He watched as she carefully pried away at the wrapping paper. She opened the box revealing a small sterling silver cuff bracelet. "Flip it over." Booth instructed her. He had engraved her a message.

"Here's to many more years together." She read it aloud. "Oh Booth!" She flung herself into his arms, and squeezed his neck. "It's exquisite."

"I'm glad you like it."

"I love it. Now tell me where you want to go to eat. My treat." She offered.

"I'm the man, I'm paying." He replied.

"There you go again with your . . ."

"Alpha male tendencies." He finished for her. "I know, but it's my night I have planned for us. Just enjoy." He led her to his SUV, and he let himself believe that they were on a date.

--

Booth smiled at the memory. He missed her so much; he craved to see her again. He gently placed the small bracelet back in the evidence container, and placed the box back on the shelf. He gave Arnie a half smile as he walked by the younger man.

"Same time tomorrow Agent Booth?" Arnie asked. He hated seeing the agent day in and day out staring at evidence in a box. He had heard stories around the bureau about Agent Booth and his squint.

"I sure hope not Arnie." He replied walking by. He hoped as he had hoped and prayed everyday that he would find her and hold her in his arms again.

Booth felt his cell phone buzzing in his suit pocket. He reached in his pocket and without looking who the caller was he sent the caller straight to voicemail. Booth chose to ignore the call and opted to head to Saint Francis of Assisi chapel. By Booth's count it was time for his month confession, and he knew that if he got to church on time he would be able to hear the church bells chiming his favorite hymn, "The Prayer to Saint Francis." Normally Booth wouldn't have cared for such things, but his mother would hum it to him when he stayed with them after his tour of duty and was healing. It always brought him peace, and that is what he needed to feel at this moment.

--

Several miles away Dr. Temperance Brennan sat on her cot, staring at the wall. Six months. Today marked the sixth month of captivity for her. The frustration was getting to her now, and she knew that the chances of them finding her diminished with every passing moment. She rubbed her sore ankle. She had cut it on the shackle about a week previous and was worried that it was going to get infected.

Brennan sighed. She was scared, thirsty, and hungry. She knew she wasn't getting the adequate care that was needed during pregnancy. She placed her hands on her stomach, acutely aware of her child kicking her. The first time she felt her child kick, she knew it was a boy.

"Connor." Brennan talked softly to him. She thought herself ridiculous for talking to a stomach, knowing that it wouldn't talk back, but she felt a connection. Something that she didn't think she would have ever felt. "I promise you I am going to hold on for as long as I can." She spoke calmly and rationally to him. She was never one to practice mother ease, though she imagined that Booth would though. Tears started rolling down her eyes at the thought of the family that may never happen. She never wanted children, but now that she was going to be one, she wanted to fight and survive to give Connor the best life he could ever have, and that meant having a mother and father around.

Brennan felt defeated though. The supplies were running low and she had figured they were walled in, which meant no supplies in or out. "Booth please hurry." She whispered, knowing that if anyone was still looking, it was him. She heard the sound of the church bells in the distance. She started humming the tune that she knew so well now.

She paced the length of the room, going only as far as the chain on the wall would let her. She saw the notebook and pen sitting on the floor. Knowing that time may be running out, she sat down to write her thoughts down, a diary of sorts.

She continued to wait for Booth, knowing that he would never give up.

_AN: Hope you enjoyed this installment of Vanished. Please review. Thanks for reading._


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five:

Booth stood outside the church, feeling a sense of peace while listening to the church bells. During all of his travels around the world, it was the one place that he found solace. He walked into the church and lit a candle. Kneeling in front of the memorial candles he crossed himself and began to pray. Tears came to his eyes as he let his thought wander to her again. He felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up.

"Father Connelly." He addressed the priest.

"Seeley, what is troubling you today son?" Father Connelly spoke with a thick Irish accent.

"I'm praying for the usual." Booth paused for a moment. "I'm begging for Bones' safe return, Parker's welfare, Rebecca's safe journey, asking for forgiveness for my sins." He added quietly.

"Seeley, do you feel like God is punishing you for your past?" Father Connelly questioned him. He heard about the young man's past, and he knew how much guilt he carried for what he did while in country. Though Booth had been a member of the parish for awhile, Father Connelly had come in to help revitalize the dying parish, and had taken a liking to Booth and his son.

"Yes." He answered quietly.

"Oh Seeley, God doesn't work like that. He doesn't want you to hurt. God didn't command that your partner be kidnapped. This didn't happen to punish you Son." Father Connelly counseled. "Ask him for help, and surely you will find it."

The priest stood back up, patting Booth on the knee. "I'll see you in church on Sunday then."

"Yes Father."

"Please God, help me find Bones. Help me please." He lit another candle for his fallen friends and prayed for the repose of their souls. He stepped out of the church, listening to the end of "The Prayer for Saint Francis," and turned back on his cell phone. Three messages.

One message was from his mother, reminding him of Jared's daughter confirmation.

The second message was from Angela checking up on him.

The third message was from Sully. "Booth we may have found the guy."

Booth didn't bother to listen to the rest of the message. He jumped into his SUV and threw on the siren and sped the entire way to the J. Edgar Hoover building.

"Sully what do you have?" Booth asked panting. He had ran up the stairs, opting not to wait on the elevator.

Sully reached over and handed him a bottle of water. "The suspects name is Andrew Miller. Several people recognized him. So far we have figured he has lived in Ohio, West Virginia, DC, and Philadelphia. Philly PD picked him up yesterday based on a tip from his employer, they are holding him on an expired tag. Are you coming with me to pick him?"

"You bet your ass I'm coming. Let me call Rosa so she can pick up Parks." Booth made his call and met Sully down at the SUV.

"Booth you need to keep your cool okay? We need to draw out as much information as we can get out of this asshole. We are going to drive him back to DC."

"I've got it Sully."

"Booth we all want her back. The pain you feel, we all feel to man." Sully tried to commiserate with his friend. He missed Brennan as well, and he could tell the team just wasn't the same.

"No Sully, you don't get it! I broke my promise to keep her safe. I let her down." Booth spat back at him. "I'll never forgive myself for this. I know what it's like to have to fight for your life, and she should never have to go through that!"

Sully looked at his friend. "We will get her back and she will be okay. Tempe is the strongest woman I know." He knew the words he spoke was just that, words. But he hoped that it brought him some comfort. They drove the rest of the way in silence.

--

Andrew Miller sat quietly in the police station in Philadelphia. He smiled to himself knowing that he had finally broken her. After six and a half months, he had finally watched her succumb to his will. He watched around the office as two men in suits walked through, those must be the federal agents that were assigned to him.

--

"Hi, we are Agents Booth and Sullivan. We are here to pick up Andrew Miller." Booth introduced himself as Sully went to do the necessary paperwork. Booth shook the policeman's hand. "Have you had any problems with the prisoner?"

"I'm Lt. Brewster. Most of the men call me Brew. We haven't had any problems with him. He answered everything we needed." The policeman answered. "He has been a completely model prisoner, asking for things politely, quiet, and doesn't demand much. We have the warrant to search his house as was requested from the bureau. We were getting ready to go."

"I'll go with." Booth invited himself along. The policeman just looked at him. So Booth leveled. "He may have kidnapped my partner. I have been looking for her for six and a half months. I need her back."

Booth rode with the officer over to the house that he was renting. Booth knew the town well growing up near there. It was the side of town that his parents never wanted him to go to. They knocked on the door, and when receiving no answer, they knocked down the door.

Booth drew his weapon and entered. The house was relatively small, only two bedrooms. Booth headed toward the backroom first and was going to work his way forward. He entered the back room cautiously, pictures laid all around on the table. Pictures of women shackled to cinder block walls. The women looked as if they were begging for their life.

Booth thumbed through the pictures, his eyes falling upon the one he had been looking for. "Brew, I have something you may want to look at!" Booth called him into the bedroom.

Brew walked in. "The house is all clear. What do you have?"

"There are four different women in these photographs, all taken at different times it seems of their captivities. This one is my partner." Booth pointed. It had disgusted him. She stared at the camera differently from the rest of the women. Brennan didn't stare at the camera begging, she was defiant.

"I bet she was a hard on to get along with." Brew commented.

"She'll continue to be a pain once I find her." Booth replied back. "She is still out there Brew. If anyone can survive it, it's Bones."

"Hey, Agent Booth, Brew, come into the basement." The techie called for them. The evidence team came in and bagged up all the photographs and quickly collected anything more from the room. Booth and Brew made their way down into the basement where the techie was staring at a computer screen. "This guy is a real sicko. He apparently hooked up a webcam of sorts and had been watching his victims."

Booth looked at the screen, afraid of what he would see. "Oh God." He saw a split screen of four different women, two obviously dead, the other two, not moving. "Is there a way to figure out where to source is coming from?"

"Unlikely. He is beaming it from different locations and has scrambled the way to trace it. It's genius actually."

Booth stared at the screen, praying for signs of life. Both women had their faces turned away from the camera and from what Booth could tell on the monitor, all had dark hair. There still was no movement. "I'll need you to send everything you can to the Jeffersonian now. Computer, pictures, everything. Clothes from the dirtbag, old shoes, anything you can get." He pointed to the two women who hadn't moved on the screen. "We still might be able to save two of them."

**_AN: Hmmm - don't know where to go now . . . keep Brennan alive, kill Brennan, happy, sad? Boy/Girl? Sigh. I had a hard day at work, so please review. It rocks my socks._**


	6. Chapter 6

_Chapter Six:_

Booth had the techie beam the images from the computer to the Jeffersonian so that the team could start pinpointing a location for the women that were believed to may still be alive. Booth scrubbed his face and grabbed his Saint Christopher medal, praying that Brennan could find it in her to last just a little bit longer. He grabbed the evidence and threw it in the back of the SUV to go meet Sully to escort him back to DC.

--

Brennan woke up to darkness. It was the same way she woke up every day, and every day that she woke up, she hoped that it was just a nightmare. That the darkness would fade away and that she would be back in Booth's arms. She yearned for him to hold her again, to be whispering that everything was okay. She didn't know if anything would ever be okay again. Brennan knew she needed to stretch, that she needed to get her blood flowing. She hadn't felt Connor kick in a couple of hours, and knew that it probably wasn't a good sign. She swung her legs over the side of the cot, grimacing as her feet hit the dirt floor. She overcame a wave of dizziness and tried to become more alert. She heard her shackles clank together as she made her way over to the supplies.

Connor had been wreaking havoc on her careful rationing demanding more that what she had planned for. She had already run out of water, and she knew that soon they would be out of food all together. By now she knew that her tormentors were never coming back with more supplies. Her time was running out and she knew it.

Thirsty and exhausted, Brennan collapsed on the floor and welcomed the darkness that awaited her.

--

Booth turned his rearview mirror to get a closer look at Andrew Miller. He wasn't a very remarkable man, and had blended in easily with the crowds. Booth turned off the interstate and pulled into the gas station. He pulled out his government issued credit card. Turning around he looked at the prisoner between the metal gate separating them.

"You want anything Andrew, if that is in fact your real name." Booth offered, hoping to get the man to talk.

"A coke and some crackers would be nice for the ride." He stared at them.

Booth handed Sully the credit card and closed the door to pump some gas for the long ride back to DC. Sully came back a couple of moments later and stood next to Booth.

"You ready to do this man?" Sully asked, handing Booth his cup of coffee.

"Ready as I will ever be." Booth answered his friend.

The two of them looked at Andrew Miller. Booth sighed and opened the back door and handed him the Coke.

"Thank you." He replied opening the Coke.

Booth nodded and began to turn on to the back roads to get back to DC. Sully had suggested the longer route to try to get as much information from him as they needed to find her. If they got him talking, maybe he would slip up.

"We are taking the scenic route home?" Andrew spoke from the backseat.

Sully nodded his head. "Yep. Needed a change from the ordinary. It's been a long week."

"You want me to talk." He sneered.

"Nope, that's quite alright. We have enough evidence to put you away for the crime with of course all the evidence you left in your home." Booth answered. It was all true, but he of course wanted her back.

"Then why are we taking the back roads? I mean surely you wouldn't care about finding their bodies would you?" There was a teasing tone to his voice, and if Booth had been in a normal interrogation room, he probably would have slammed the suspects head against the metal table by now.

"We are giving you a change to help yourself. If you tell us the locations of the bodies so the loved ones can bury them, then we can get the DA to cut you a deal, life instead of the needle." Sully reasoned with the man.

Andrew Miller sat in silence for several minutes, as if trying to toy with them. "I like your cologne Agent Sullivan."

Sully turned around. "Not me, I don't wear that stuff."

"You then Agent Booth."

"Yeah, it was a gift." Booth replied staring straight ahead, concentrating on the winding country road.

"A gift from Dr. Brennan, your partner?" Andrew Miller asked innocently.

"Yeah, as a matter of fact, it was." Booth answered, trying not to be baited by the man.

"So why did you do it Miller?" Sully asked, gulping down his drink. "I mean kidnapping a child is one thing, but a full grown woman who can kick someone's ass is another. Brennan is a fighter, an expert in self defense."

"Sometimes all you have to do is make someone like her fit into the world that you want, even if the bitch breaks your nose." Miller subconsciously touched his nose. "She needed to be broken, to fit into the way the world sees women."

Miller paused taking a sip of his drink. "Everyone knows about the great Dr. Brennan. A self-made, independent, strong woman, she makes me sick. What is so wrong with trying to fit in with society?"

"So you wanted to stand out." Sully said. "When did you first notice her?"

"She was working a crime scene across from my house. She was standing there, barking orders, looking so superior. I knew right then, I would have her in my collection." Miller explained to them. "I knew then she would be the hardest one for me to break."

"Brennan broke your nose." Booth popped in, feeling pride for his partner. He knew she had gone down fighting.

"So it was your blood at the scene mixed in with hers." Sully kept talking on, watching Booth try desperately to keep control of his emotions. "I'm sure we will get a court ordered DNA test to confirm. Thanks Miller, you just gave us the kidnapping charge we need."

"Don't say I never gave you anything." Miller spat at the two.

"I have to stretch, and check in with the bureau." Booth replied, pulling the SUV over.

Booth turned off the engine and stepped out onto the wet grass. He ran his fingers through his hair. Sully got out and stood next to his friend.

"We will find her man. Don't give up." Sully tried to encourage him.

"He is trying to break her. You know what though, she would never break." Booth said to him, even though it was more for himself. "I need to check in with the lab."

--

"Cam, this better be good." Hodgins said walking in with Angela on his arm. They were going out to the symphony, something that was expected of Hodgins since the Cantilever group was a big benefactor of the symphony.

"Hodgins as much as I hate interrupting our personal lives for a case, you may want to be in on this one." Cam started to explain. "Booth found pictures of Brennan, and he has found a secure website that shows where she is being held. I need you guys to help me analyze these things."

Angela nodded and pulled out the manila envelope that was sitting on the examination table. "Oh God." She pulled out the picture of Brennan, her face was bruised, her lip was busted. "Booth is going to kill him." Angela said softly, wondering how the drive home was going for him.

Hodgins loaded up his computer and logged on to the site that Booth had told them about. "Holy shit."

The team couldn't believe their eyes. Angela, let out a small cry. "Brennan's pregnant."

Hodgins sucked in his breath. He remembered what it was like to be trapped and losing hope. "We have to find her." He said with much more determination than ever.

The lab phone rang. Zack threw it on speaker. "Hello. Forensic lab at the Jeffersonian. This is Dr. Addy."

"Zack it's Booth, what do you have?"

"Nothing concrete. We have figured out which one of the women on the website is Brennan." Cam started off. She looked to Angela.

"Booth, there is something you need to know." Angela spoke quietly.

"Yeah Ange?" Booth asked.

"Booth, honey, Bren's pregnant."

**AN: Yeah, I know - cliff hanger. I always have one in every story, two if I feel evil. But alas, reviews rock my socks, so please review and let me know you are reading and enjoying.**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Eight:

Booth took a moment to digest the information. The silence was deafening, and all the team members just looked uncomfortably at each other, all wondering which one of them was going to be brave enough to speak up.

Angela was getting reading to speak up when she heard Booth intake a sharp breath. "Angela, are you sure?"

"Booth . . ." Angela felt sorry for him. It was a shock to everyone, but Angela knew that Booth would be blaming himself for something that he had no control over.

"No Angela, I mean, it could be the angle of the camera, it could be the way she is laying, it could be over sized clothes . . . something other than that." Booth was trying to find a way to wrap his brain around what he had just heard. Brennan was pregnant, locked in a hell, struggling to survive.

He pulled the phone away from his ear, and struggled with the emotions that were raging inside of him. His worst nightmare was realized. "DAMN IT!" He screamed. Sully rushed over to his friend's aid. He knew there was something drastically wrong.

Booth brought the phone back up to his ear. The team could hear him struggle to regain control of his breathing.

Cam shot a pointed look at everyone, "Booth, we need you to get him to tell you where she is. She is still alive, she is fighting to make it back to us. We need you to do what you do best and we will do what we do best. We will get her out of there." She tried to calm him down. "Seeley, you can't lose it now. We are so close."

"Cam we need to get to her." Booth

"We will Booth." She reassured him. "Get back quickly. Call us when you get in."

"I'll be there as soon as I can be." Booth said effectively hanging up the call.

Cam looked back at the rest of the team. "We have to hurry guys. She looks dehydrated and probably has not gotten any medical attention for her pregnancy." Cam looked at her watch. "Booth will be back in a couple of hours. We have to make as much headway as we can with what we have. Start analyzing anything we can get out of the pictures."

Angela held sought Hodgins' embrace. "Jack we need to find her."

"We will Babe." He assured her. Angela looked up at the computer monitor and stared at it, hoping that something would jump out so they would find her.

--

Booth tossed Sully a look. "Bones needs us to find her now."

"Booth what happened?" Sully questioned, even though he was sure he didn't want to find out. He followed Booth over to the car. Booth opened up the back seat and grabbed Andrew Miller by the collar, hoisting him out of the car and throwing him down to the ground.

"Where is she?" Booth screamed at him.

"Who, your precious Dr. Brennan?" Miller smiled wickedly at him, getting up to his feet.

"Where is my partner?" Booth growled. Sully knew that Booth was going to quickly lose his temper.

"You should have heard her beg. No, you didn't need to hear her beg, you heard her beg that night, the night you had her in the hotel. Tell me was she good? I couldn't wait to have her." Miller baited him. "She begged and begged for me to stop. She didn't put up as good of a fight as I thought she would, with as you pointed out being trained in self defense. Then when she found out she was pregnant, she started begging for me to leave her and her child alone. Imagine that, a woman who doesn't want children trying to protect something she never wanted."

Booth grabbed him and threw him back down on the ground. "You son of a bitch!" He repeatedly kicked Miller in the stomach releasing the breath he hadn't known he been holding.

Sully jumped in, pulling Booth off of Miller. "Booth, stop! We aren't going to accomplish anything this way."

Miller stood back up groaning, watching as Sully attempted to restrain Booth. "Finally I meet a government worker with a brain. She's. I'll take you to her, if sensible one drives. Agent Booth is too preoccupied right now to insure safety on these winding roads."

Sully nodded and Booth handed him the keys. Sully went to the SUV and started it. Booth escorted Miller back to the SUV, ramming his head into the door. "Sorry, I must have been too preoccupied to remember to open the door." Booth smirked at him. He helped Miller back into the SUV, hoping that he was getting closer to her.

Miller directed them back to interstate 95 south and slurped on his drink. Booth turned around and looked at him. "You told us why you picked Dr. Brennan, why the others?" Booth questioned. Booth may not have been as eloquently trained as Sully, but he still knew how to question people and get what he needed out of them.

"Isn't it obvious?" Miller asked.

Sully shook his head. "We only know about Dr. Brennan. You wanted to break her. Is that your MO? Breaking strong women?"

"It's not like that Agent Sullivan." Miller said. "I'm not the regular kidnapper."

"You don't kidnap just to kidnap." Booth supplied. "You take the women who don't fit into your world. You kidnap the ones who stick out, who have things to live for. Brennan lived for her work, for finding justice. She was finally happy for once."

"The gold star goes to Agent Booth." Miller sneered. "Jessica needed to have it all too. She was a lawyer working on a high profile divorce case in Ohio."

"Jessica West?" Sully asked. He had worked on that case two years ago. She had just vanished from a bar one night.

"Yeah. She helped women fleece their husbands of everything they had, said that they deserved it for being there. That bitch did nothing in during our twelve years of marriage, and she gets half of everything I own!"

Booth spoke up. "She was your first. Your wife left you so you killed the lawyer that helped her."

"They were sleeping together." Miller admitted. "I didn't just kill them. It would have been too easy just to kill them."

Booth shook his head. "Them? You killed your ex-wife as well?"

"Jamie had it coming, but everyone thinks she ran off with the pool boy. We had the picture perfect life. A great house in the suburbs, married right after college. She had it coming ruining all that."

"No you broke their spirits. You took away hope. You took away what they had to live for."

"Very good Agent Booth."

"Why?" Sully asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Booth told him. "He is just like every other serial killer. His mommy didn't show him enough attention. What happened to your mommy?" Booth chided the man, now he was the one who was baiting him.

"Don't you ever talk about her! My father called her a free spirit, and he tried to break her but he couldn't. But I could." Miller replied in a sing-song voice. "She drowned. She always complained she was drowning."

_Miller Flashback_

_A young Andrew Miler woke up in the middle of the night. He heard his mother and father yelling again, they were always yelling about Mary's free spirit. The dinner was barely edible and his father was sick of her neglect towards his feelings all the time. Andrew heard the magic words "Let's get divorced" come out of his mother's mouth. He was not going to be one of those children who had to move out of the comfort of his home because of his mother not fitting in._

_Young Andrew heard his father grab his keys to go drinking again, which meant it was going to be a bad morning. He had to stop it once and for all. He followed his mother out to the pool. She always went skinny dipping during hot summer nights. Andrew hated her for that, his friends could never come over because of that. He longed to have a slumber party with his friends as well._

_He watched as she swam laps, watched as her leg cramped up. Watched and did nothing._

_End Flashback, back to the present time._

"And I just watched as she screamed, begging for me to help her." He finished telling them the story. "I saw her give up hope, it was such a fascinating thing. Dr. Brennan has lost hope Agent Booth. It is just a matter of time now."

"You don't know Bones. You don't know me. She knows that I am going to find her. She will never lose hope that I will find her." Booth asserted.

"We will see about that. Agent Sullivan, turn off at the next exit and make your first right." He instructed, taking them to the house where Booth hoped that he would find his partner.

_AN: A reviewer asked me how long this story was going to be, and quite honestly I don't know. I have the general story line mapped out, but don't know how long I am going to go. Anyway, please review, it feeds the author's soul and rocks her socks. There are so many place I could take this, if you have an idea, let me know! Thanks for reading._


	8. Chapter 8

_Chapter Eight:_

Sully maneuvered the SUV into the driveway belonging to an old, dilapidated wooden house.

"Oh home sweet home." Miller muttered staring at the shutters that were threatening to fall at the slightest blow of the wind.

Sully turned off the vehicle. "Is this it Miller?" He questioned, turning around to look at the man he had grown to detest over the past hour.

"No games?" Booth questioned, unbuckling himself. He went to the back door and opened it up, roughly pulling Miller out of the vehicle.

"No games." Miller confirmed as Booth shoved Miller in front of him.

"Well then, lead the way." Booth told him, silently praying to God that this would be the end of his nightmare. Miller glanced back at the men.

"Let's go find her then." Miller said in a sing-song voice, leading them to go find Booth's Bones.

--

Brennan sat quietly on her cot, hoping that Booth would be on his way. She looked grimly at the littered floor, she had just ate the last piece of bread, and her mouth was watering. Brennan placed her hand on her stomach and rubbed it back and forth.

"Connor kicking me is not going to help me find any water any time soon Baby." She blinked her eyes a couple of times. Her vision was going blurry, she attributed it to anxiety and stress. The blurriness soon righted itself and she knew she had to go stretch for a couple of moments. She pushed herself up from the cot and took a couple of steps acutely away of the chains tethering her to the wall. Brennan paced a little bit looking at the walls.

"Six months, two weeks, four days." She muttered. "Booth, please hurry. Connor, don't worry, Booth will find us soon." She said, more for herself. Brennan walked back over to her cot and picked up her pen and notebook and started writing to pass the time.

--

Back at the Jeffersonian Angela had started what Hodgins called "Brennan watch." He opened the door and walked quietly over to her, placing her Starbucks next to her.

"Angie, honey, staring at the monitor isn't going to get us any closer to finding her."

"Jack, she is running out of time. We need to do something. She is probably dehydrated, hungry, exhausted. Bren should be experiencing the joy of pregnancy not worrying about surviving. We should be planning a baby shower. I should be painting a mural in the nursery, you should be buying some ridiculously expensive toy. Max should be a doting grandfather and Booth should be rubbing her feet, not trying to rescue her. It's all wrong!" Angela screamed at him, her voice was growing louder and louder until she was screaming.

Jack gathered her in his arms. "Honey, we will find her and when we do, we will do all those things." Hodgins assured her. "Come on. It's almost two in the morning. We can't do anything else here tonight."

"I can't Jack. I know she doesn't know that we know she is a live, but it helps me to see her." Angela explained.

He swiveled the computer monitor around led Angela to the couch. "I'll sit here with you." He pulled her close, studying the computer monitor for anything that would lead them closer to her.

--

Booth surveyed the grounds. There was nothing that was remarkable about the place at all. He breathed in the cold April air. Something didn't sit quite right with him. He swept the flashlight around the yard. The breeze caught the branches of a nearby tree with a wind chime hanging in it.

"Sully, this seems too easy." Booth commented as he caught up him. "I mean what serial killer makes it this easy."

"I promised you Agent Booth, there would be no games. You will be with your precious Dr. Brennan soon." Miller sneered.

They walked past the pool. "Is this where your mother drowned?" Sully asked, following Miller down the path. "Is this your childhood home?"

"Very good Agent Sullivan." Miller praised him. "I'm a textbook case for murderers. I have my safety zone. Dear old mom and dad's house, where it all began, and where it will all end." He muttered. "Dad tried to make us the freaking beaver family. He held a steady job working all the time as a demolition man for the construction companies. Leaving me all alone with that whack job of a mother. A free spirit. She never even wanted children. I don't know why he would have ever forced her to have children."

"People can change their minds." Sully responded. "It is human nature to not want something in one point of your life, but then to change your mind when your life hits a different point. Your mother had choices, just as you had the choice to help your mother or watch her drown."

"There is always a choice." Booth added.

Miller stopped in front of the back door. The windows had been boarded up, the wood that was used though was rotted through and they lock held firmly in place.

"Where is the key Miller?" Sully asked. He was getting impatient as well. He didn't know how much longer Brennan could hold on while they were playing games with a killer.

"It's in the house in Philadelphia." He responded.

Sully took his gun out and blew the lock. He put the gun back in the holster and turned to Booth who was staring out. Something just didn't sit right with him.

"Sully we should probably call for backup, equipment, and the EMTS. We don't know what kind of shape we will find her in." Booth reasoned with him. He wanted to be prepared for every possible scenario. "We shouldn't go just busting in there, who knows what kind of trap he has set up for us."

"Booth, she doesn't have that kind of time, we both know that." Sully responded. "What's the worse that could happen? This place hasn't been in use for years."

Booth just looked at his friend. Brennan would have listened to him. It was at times like this when he needed someone to listen to him that he really missed Brennan the most. She would have at least listened to him and then told him that he shouldn't take too much stock in what a digestive organ would tell him. Then, they would go by his gut anyway. He missed their partnership so much. He missed just seeing her for no reason at all.

Sully stood at the door. Miller was standing behind him. "Booth, the faster we check it up, the faster we can get to her." Booth nodded at the logic and watched Sully push open the door.

Booth heard the unmistakable sound of a pin being pulled out a grenade. He ran toward Sully and Miller, quickly pushing them into the pool. They plunged into the dark green murky water as debris from the house flew around them.

"NO!" Booth shouted as he watched the house burn.

--

Back at the Jeffersonian, Angela and Hodgins sat staring at some crime scene photos, hoping to find anything that would lead them to their friend and get her the help they so desperately needed.

"Oh my God!" Angela screamed watching the screen. "Call Booth now!" She sobbed.

**_AN: Hmmm, I hope you guys enjoyed this installment, even though you might want to kill me for right now. Was she in the building or was she not in the building? Please review._**

**_Thanks for reading._**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine:

"NO! GOD NO!" Booth watched helplessly as the house burned. He climbed out of the pool, running toward the house.

"Booth!" Sully climbed out of the pool, running after his friend, leaving Miller behind to struggle in the eight feet of water by himself.

"Sully, call for help!" Booth screamed, getting ready to run into the blazing inferno.

"Booth, you can't run in there. The entire house is going up in flames, you will be killed!" Sully tried to reason with him. "You can't leave your son." He mentioned softly.

Booth sank to the ground, "God please! I need some help about now!" He screamed, hoping for an answer. He turned to the sound of Miller laughing at him.

"God isn't listening to you Agent Booth. All hope is gone now." He laughed manically. Two for the price of one what could be better. It made his day watching all hope slip for the Agent's eyes. He continued to watch Booth pace, reaching for his Saint Christopher's medal. He watched as Booth's eyes darkened as he paced, staring at the ruins of the house. Suddenly Booth threw Miller on the ground, forcing him on to his knees. Booth leveled his gun at Miller's head.

"You sick son of a bitch! Oh God!" He stared at the burning building.

Sully stood behind him. "Booth, don't do this. You do this, he wins. You don't want him to win."

Booth ran his hand through his hair, knowing that if he killed the man then he would most certainly go to jail and to hell, but none of that matter now. He looked at the burning building, aware of the heat blazing all around him. Everything was spinning around him, and his only thoughts were of the woman that was lost in the blaze. This is what hell on earth must feel like.

"Sully, it was Bones." He sobbed, tightening his grip on the gun.

"Booth, if you do this it will be murder. You are giving him what he wants. You can't do this. You need to live now for Parker, your beautiful little boy. Booth, Parker needs you to be strong right now." Sully reasoned with him. Booth tried to focus on his son's face in his mind's eye, hoping that his face would help him find peace.

Booth heard the sound of his cell phone going off in the grass next to Miller, he must have dropped it before he jumped into the pool. He stared down at it, hesitating to pick it up. It was the Jeffersonian. How was he going to tell the team that he was too late, that he let her down when she needed him the most. He decided that he had to call the police and fire departments, delaying the inevitable.

--

The sounds of the sirens were approaching as the morning sun was beginning to rise. All Booth would do was sit on the side of the SUV staring at the phone in his hands wondering how the hell he was going to make this call. A paramedic came up to him.

"Agent Booth, you have debris in your arm. You need to get that taken care of."

"I will in a moment."

The sound of the fire crackling was all around him; it was the only sound that he was aware of. Sully walked up behind him. "Booth, I'm so sorry." He whispered.

He nodded, choking on the air he was breathing. He stared at the man still in Sully's custody. He was standing there looking all smug.

"All hope is gone now Agent Booth. I win." Miller sneered at him. Booth didn't care anymore, he reared back and decked the guy across the jaw. "That's police brutality." He screamed.

"I didn't see anything." Sully replied, grabbing Miller up by the collar. He knew that Booth's arm was probably killing him. "Booth, you need to get your arm looked at, and while you are at it, your hand."

Booth nodded, and then held up his cell phone. "Sully, I should make this call in private."

Sully acknowledge how hard that call was going to be to make, and left Booth alone to make that call that no one should ever have to make.

--

"Cam we need you in here!" Hodgins called for her from Brennan's office.

Cam put down the pictures she was working on with Zack. "Zack, we aren't going to find anything else at the moment. Work on finding out where those signals are coming from, we need to hack into his system and pinpoint a location ASAP." She told him as she was leaving to find out what Hodgins so desperately needed.

"Yes Dr. Soryan." Zack responded as he tapped into his computer. He noted that two of the four boxes were now feeding white noise into the system. He hoped with two signals being down that the other two would be easier to find.

"What do you need?" She looked up on the screen to figure out what it was that had Hodgins and Angela in hysterics. "Damn it. She is seizing. Most likely preeclampsia or poisoning. We have to get to her now. Call Booth."

Angela picked up Brennan's office phone, knowing that Booth was not going to like what she had to say.

Booth heard his cell phone ring just as he was going to place the call to the Jeffersonian. Brennan's face flashed up on the screen.

Booth's Memory:

"Booth, I don't understand why you needed to upgrade your phone. Your last phone was perfectly fine." Brennan argued with him as they took their seat in the food court. She was just made because Booth had drug her from her office again to go run on an important errand with him, and she had promised her publisher that she would get out two more chapters.

"I was up for a rebate on a new phone, and the other one was just so old." Booth complained. "I like my new phone. It takes pictures and then you can assign pictures to the phone numbers that way you can see who it is that is calling you." He explained. 

"Boys just like new toys." She told him.

"In bed." He muttered like a teenager.

"What was that?" She questioned him. "I just said boys like new toys, and you added in bed." A look of understanding crossed her features, causing her to smile. "Why would you say something like that?" She questioned after a moment.

He smiled at her. "My brother and I would do that to each other when we were younger. One would say something and the other one would say in bed. Just something juvenile."

"And I thought sex was taboo in your Catholic household. I mean you always have such a hard time talking about sex with me, but with your brother it was okay?" She prodded at him.

"Bones, my brother and I did not talk about sex, alright. We talked about the girls and sports. Lots of sports." He hushed her trying to bring her voice down a little bit. They were still in the food court.

"I mean, I don't know why sex is so taboo. It is natural to explore your feeling when you are younger and to talk about your conquests." She continued on, now getting stares from some of the older people still in the mall.

"First off, they aren't conquests, and second off, we are not having this conversation. So just shut up and smile Bones." He took a picture of her at just the right moment, right before she was getting ready to smack him.

She quieted down for a moment grabbing one of his fries. He was taking a swallow of his drink when she asked him a question.

"So do you?"

"Do I what Bones?" He said raising his soda to his lips.

"Do you like toys in bed?" She asked innocently, causing him to spew Dr. Pepper all over the place, causing several bystanders to stare.

"I'm not going to answer that." Booth replied, shaking his head at his ridiculous partner, grabbing some napkins to clean up the table.

"Hey Booth?"

"No Bones, I am not going to answer any more questions right now."

She stared him down. "I was going to ask you what you were going to get Angela and Hodgins for their wedding gift, or if you wanted to go in with me." She snatched another one of his fries.

He smiled. This was a safe topic.

--

He picked up the phone. "Hey." Angela greeted him. She flipped him to speaker phone. "Booth, what is going on?" She heard the sirens on the other end, hoping that he had found her. "Did you find Brennan?"

"Angela," He choked, trying to force the words to come out. "She's dead."

"Booth, how do you know?" Angela had just seen Brennan on the screen and was wondering where Booth was.

"Miller set a trap for us, he set up a grenade to explode next to a gas tank. He blew the house he was holding Bones in to kingdom come." He whispered. The team had to strain to hear him. They could hear his voice getting caught in his throat.

"Booth that isn't possible." Angela told him. "Brennan is still very much alive. We are staring at her on the computer screen now. The explosion is what probably knocked out the other two cameras, but Brennan is still very much with us, for now."

Booth digested what she was saying. "You're saying she wasn't in the house that I'm at now?" Booth questioned her, holding out hope.

"I see her now. Booth, you need to get Miller to tell you where she is at. She had a seizure and it looks like she in unconscious." Cam spoke up, her voice not hiding the precariousness of the situation. It was bad, and she didn't know how bad.

There was still time. There was still hope. "Hold on Angela." He kept her on the line while he went to go figure out what was happening.

Booth gripped his gun and walked over to where Sully was with Miller, watching them put out the fire, he threw Miller on the ground. Miller sat up. "More brutality Agent Booth?"

"If you don't tell me where she is, I am going to shoot you right now." Booth muttered, not caring at the moment. All he knew was that she was hurt.

"I can't tell you that now can I Agent Booth." He replied.

All Angela and the team heard on the opposite end was the sound of Booth discharging his weapon.

* * *

**_AN: First off I am amazed by the number of death threats, PMs, reviews, and support for this story. You guys rock! This is turning into an epic of a story that I had imagined only being five chapters long with me most likely killing off Brennan, but in fear for my life, I have decided not to, but with that being said, please don't stop your out pouring of support, death threats, and ideas along the way. My reviewers and subscribers rock, and I just wanted to say THANK YOU to every single one of you. Whereas I write for myself, I am happy to find that so many enjoy my ideas, and for that I am touched deeply. Thank you again. Have a great weekend._**


	10. Chapter 10

_Vanished:_

_Chapter Ten:_

The sun was rising on the Friday morning. The sky was painted with fiery oranges and reds, matching the colors of the fire that was still raging around them. Booth stood there with his gun still smoking with a menacing look in his eyes, looking somewhat demonic to anyone who was watching the scene. Booth's arm was throbbing from the combination of the reverberation of the gun and the debris that had lodged itself in his bicep. None of that matter to him though. All he knew was that he needed to find Brennan and soon. Sully watched as Booth struggled with his demons, struggling with his conscience. How far was Booth willing to take this before losing himself in trying to find her?

"That was your one and only warning shot." Booth warned. "I won't give you a second one."

Miller stayed on his knees, "You are such a coward Booth." Miller taunted him.

"Where is she you pathetic excuse for a human being?" Sully interjected, tired of playing the game as well. He knew that Brennan was a strong woman, but he honestly didn't know how much fight the fiery anthropologist had left in her. Six and a half months was a long time to be held in captivity.

Miller defiantly shook his head. "She's already dead. You should have heard her, right before she died, humming 'The Prayer to Saint Francis.' Damn bitch doesn't believe in God, and there she was humming a Catholic hymn. She always hoped you would find her. She died listening to those damn church bells, losing all hope she had in you. You should go ahead and pray for her soul in purgatory."

Booth held his phone back up to his ear.

"Angela . . ." He started off.

"Booth, did you shoot the bastard?" She hoped, not hiding the disgust for Miller in her voice. She knew that the man was going to rot in the fiery pits of hell, and even that was too good for him.

"Nope. I needed him alive for the moment, no telling what I am going to do when I don't need him anymore." Booth assured. "Angela, I need you to focus for me. Brennan is being held within a mile of the Saint Francis of Assisi Chapel in Maryland close to DC line. I need you to take Miller's picture over there and start showing it around the neighborhood so we can find her."

"Booth, are you positive?" Angela asked.

"Ange, I have been going to church there for over five years. Parker was baptized there. I know she is around that area."

"Seeley, we don't have time to waste. She doesn't look well." Cam told him.

"I know Cam. Just get on it. I'll be back in the area in thirty minutes. Just find where she is being held." Booth told them ending the call.

Sully threw Booth the keys to the SUV knowing that he was the better driver out of the two of them for going at extreme speeds. Booth got on his radio and immediately called for anyone in the area to go and search for his partner.

He started the SUV and threw it into drive, he turned to Miller in the backseat, "You know Miller there is always hope no matter what."

--

Booth had turned the normal commute of one hour into 40 minutes, deftly weaving the SUV through the morning traffic which gave way to the blaring sirens. He pulled into the church parking lot, killing the sirens. Father Connelly was out front tending to the shrubbery and washing the graffiti off the church walls.

"Good morning Seeley." He greeted as Booth approached the older man. "Did you come to help with the morning routine?"

"Father, good morning." He addressed the priest with respect. "I need your help." Booth began. He pointed to Miller in the SUV, "Do you know that man?"

Father Connelly studied him. "That is Harold Boyd. He is a parishioner here. He became a member of the church about a year ago. You wouldn't have known him, he goes to the Saturday night mass. What has Harold done?"

"I need his address. He is the one who has abducted my partner." Booth told the priest. Father Connelly nodded his head and retrieved the records for him.

After Booth obtained the records that he needed, he ran back towards the SUV. "Booth, how did you know to stop here?" Sully asked.

"Catholics believe in purgatory. I made the jump to believe that Miller, or Boyd, whatever your real name is, would have registered in the church in his neighborhood. My mother and father always beat it in my head." Booth explained, going toward the address that Father Connelly had supplied him with. "Hold on Bones, I'm on my way."

--

Brennan was in a haze, she didn't know how she ended up on the floor, and all she knew was that the pain in her head was threatening her to pass out again. She pushed herself up on to her feet listening to the ringing of the eight o'clock church bells. She touched her head gingerly where the pressure was building up.

She sank to the floor, sobbing, knowing that time was running out. Her energy was spent, and her vision went blurry, and before she knew it, she was back on the floor, her body giving in to the seizure. If her consciousness had lasted a couple of moments longer, she would have heard the sounds of sirens coming to rescue her out of her hell.

--

Booth swung the SUV into the driveway, this house looking vastly different from the last house they were previously at. The house was newer, in a subdivision that was in the process of being built. A construction agency had taken over some unused and dilapidated land and was revitalizing it, putting middle class homes in an area that was once overran by prostitutes and drug dealers. It was all part of an initiative to clean up the streets.

The squints had noticed the SUV in the driveway and came running up. "Booth, did you find her?" Angela asked.

"We believe this is the house where she is being held." Booth confirmed, "But we can't go storming in there like we did last time, we need to make sure he didn't booby trap the house like he did with the last one. The bomb squad is on its way."

Booth paced the front lawn, nervously waiting for any word about whether or not he could storm in and protect her. He finally sat on the curb, putting his head in his hands. "I failed her Angela." He whispered.

"No Booth you didn't. You kept fighting for her even though the rest of the world was telling you to let it go. If anyone failed her it was the ones who didn't believe in her." Angela spoke softly, waiting for the bomb squad to finish their sweep.

Sully finished talking with the commander of the squad and walked up behind Booth. "The house is clean. We can go in now." He helped Booth off the curb and the group made their way into the house to go retrieve their comrade.

--

Booth entered the house, making his way through the kitchen. The air smelt stale, the house left completely abandoned by its owner. Booth saw that the cupboards where left open by the bomb squad revealed rotting food and cans of food past the expiration date. He hoped that Brennan was still with him.

His cell phone rang, "Agent Booth speaking."

"Agent Booth, its Zack. Dr. Brennan has suffered another seizure. You need to get to her quickly." He reported, hoping that Booth was close.

"Thanks Zack." Booth quickened his pace, confirming that she wasn't on the first floor. He made his way down to the basement. Looking around he knew that the basement was smaller than it should have been, with cinderblock walls.

"Sully, Cam." He called for the team to come down to where he was.

He heard the team coming down the stairs, wondering if they had any better luck that what he had. "What did you find Seeley?" Cam asked coming down the stairs.

"Something that probably shouldn't be here." He replied, pointing to the walls. "These weren't put here for support at all, and it looks like there was some recent construction here." Booth pointed to where there was some obviously newer concrete. "I'm going to need a sledgehammer to get in there."

--

Sully and Booth stood at the wall several minutes later knowing that they were closer than ever to finding her. Booth, took the first swing, cracking into the wall. The concrete crumbled away with each swing, and Booth felt a renewed energy, knowing the each swing was going to bring him closer to her. Angela and Cam stood at a distance, letting the men work, knowing that finding her would finally close one chapter of Booth's life and begin another.

"What are you going to do when you find her man?" Sully asked pounding into the wall.

"I'm going to hold her and never let her go." Booth replied. He swung again, his arm protesting with every movement.

"Good luck with that. Tempe isn't going to let you do that." Sully replied.

"I know, trust me I know." Booth swung again, this time cracking through the other side. He peered in and saw her on the floor. "Hang on Bones!" He swung again, the concrete crumbling away, forming a big enough wall for Booth to step inside. He ran over to her, aghast at her frail appearance, but just overwhelmed with happiness to see her again. "Temperance, come on, wake up for me." He whispered, cradling her. He saw the chain that tethered her to the wall and the infection on her ankle, Booth put his hand on her stomach. "Hold on little guy." He whispered, waiting for the fire department to come to cut her from the wall.

He felt her move, she stirred a little bit. "Booth." His name escaped from her lips.

"Hey there." He whispered. "I missed you."

Tears started forming in both their eyes. "I knew that you would come for me."

"Always Bones." He promised her. She started seizing again, losing consciousness. "We need some help in here now!" He screamed, praying that he wasn't too late.

_AN: Here is the latest installment. I brought them back together. I hope you enjoyed the installment. Please review. Let me know what you want to happen next._


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven:

The words on the forms all blurred together. He blinked, trying to focus on the papers, but it was futile. The only thing that Booth could focus on was his partner that the doctors where frantically working on.

"Booth," Cam's voice filtered in through the chaos.

"Cam, they gave me papers to fill out and I don't think I can do it." He whispered. She took the forms from him.

"I'll do them. I know most of her information from her personal file." Cam told him. "How's your arm?" She questioned him. It looked bad, and she knew he probably didn't even think about getting it taken care of. From what she could see, there was a big piece of debris in his arm.

"It's nothing. They need to work on Bones."

Cam placed her hand on his bad arm, he flinched, for the first time feeling how deep it was in there. "That's what I thought. It might have imbedded in the muscle. You need to get it looked at." She led him over to the nurses' station, where they quickly attended to his arm.

Newly bandaged, and with no word, there was only one thing he could do now, he paced around the room, knowing that he could do nothing for her now, and that her fate was in God's hands now. He sighed, staring out of the windows. All he could do now was wait.

"Agent Booth?"

Booth's head whipped around at the sound of the doctor's voice. "Yes." His voice was raw from trying to keep his emotions in check. He felt like a pressure cooker, getting ready to explode at a moment's notice.

"Ms. Brennan was brought it with a serious condition related to her pregnancy which caused her convulsions. Right now she is stable but the condition is going to persist unless the baby is delivered." The doctor told him, sympathy for the man was pouring out of his voice.

"But she is stable, right doctor?" Hodgins asked.

"Yes." He answered.

"Then a decision doesn't have to be made at this point, I mean she might not have another convulsion, and could carry the baby to term." Booth rationalized.

"I'm sorry Mr. Booth, it doesn't look that way. Her condition is rather advanced. We need you to make a decision."

"Shouldn't her next of kin make that decision?" Booth said.

"You are listed as the next of kin." The doctor told him. "Ms. Brennan is currently unconscious. We don't know if she is going to regain consciousness. She has severe swelling in her brain presumably caused by the seizures." He explained. "You are listed as her emergency contact. Take a couple of moments, but we need to have an answer soon."

"When do you need a decision?" Booth's words were getting caught in his throat.

"The sooner the better. You have a couple of minutes to think about it, but if you don't make up your mind soon, there is a chance that we will not only lose the baby, but the mother as well."

"Can I see her?" Booth asked.

"We had to intubate her to help with her breathing, so there will be a tube, helping her breathe." The doctor explained. "She is also hooked up to several IVs to help with hydration and a broad spectrum antibiotic is being administered to stop the infection in her ankle. Mr. Booth, it's pretty bad."

Booth heard Angela gasp finding comfort in Hodgins' arms. Booth hoped that Hodgins knew how lucky he was to just be able to hold her at that moment. Booth nodded and followed the doctor down the hall. He ushered Booth into a trauma room which held his partner, there were tubes and IVs and medical instruments strewn all over the place.

"I'll give you a couple of minutes, but we have to act quickly."

"I understand Doctor." Booth walked over to Brennan's bedside and picked up her hand. It looked so frail, he was afraid that he was going to break it. He brushed her hair out of her face and memorized the sharp angles of her face. He closed his eyes and willed a picture of Brennan to come to mind, and he focused on her intense blue eyes.

"I don't know what to do Bones. They say if we don't act quickly then you could die, but the longer the baby stays in you, the better chance he or she has of survival. You put me in a hell of a position Bones." He leaned down and kissed her forehead, knowing what he had to do. He placed his hand on her stomach.

He motioned for the doctor to come in. "If I decide not to have this done, what might happen?"

"Then you run the risk of losing both the mother and the baby. Honestly Mr. Booth the best option is to for a cesarean as soon as possible to give both of them a fighting chance."

"Let's do it then." Booth replied hoping to God he made the right decision.

"Do you want to be in the delivery room?" The doctor asked, knowing that the man was chopping at the bit getting ready to explode.

"Yeah." Booth replied. He didn't want to leave her side. Booth went over and picked up her hand and brought it to his lips.

--

Booth watched in the operating room as they performed the caesarian section. The moment the scalpel hit the skin, Booth paled, opting to turn away and stroke her hair.

"Hey Temperance, you are going to be a mom." He whispered.

"Say hello to your son." The OB/GYN said pulling the baby out.

Booth turned back and saw the exceedingly small child. "Why isn't he crying?"

"Shit, she's hemorrhaging."

A nurse ushered Booth out of the room watching the operating doors close him with the two most important people right now fighting for their lives. He never felt less helpless before. He turned to waiting room, where there would be a room full of squints needing answers.

--

"Booth, what's happening?" Angela asked noting that he was wearing an operating gown.

"We went with the caesarean. It was the only good option there was of saving them both. Bones had a little boy. That is all I know. They rushed me out of the room so they could work on them. Bones was hemorrhaging and the baby was so small. I don't know if I made the right decision." Booth explained to them. His resolve now was wearing thin.

Hodgins went over to the machine and bought him a cup of coffee. "Here you go man." He offered the cup to him.

"God I hope she is okay." Booth took the coffee gratefully. "I hope they are both okay." He amending taking a long swallow.

"Bren is a fighter, she will pull out of this." Angela said with certainty in her voice.

They took their seats, all huddling together, pulling for the two in the operating room.

**AN: I hope you all enjoyed the latest installment. Please reveiw it rocks my socks.**


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve:

Booth gripped the hard plastic armrests of the chairs so tightly that Cam would have sworn that it would have broken. "Booth." She spoke softly, they were friends, there was no hard feelings about the demise of their relationship, "Brennan is stubborn as anything. She certainly is not going to let this sicko win." She affirmed. "She held on for six and a half months waiting for you, she isn't going to quit now."

"Thanks Cam." Booth was grateful. He knew that she was strong. His cell phone buzzed, alerting him of an incoming call. "Hey Sully." Booth answered.

"How is Tempe?" Sully asked.

"In surgery." He replied. "How is processing the crime scene?"

"We finished about an hour ago. I'm getting ready to head over there with you. Booth, Rosa had to drop Parks off. Her mother had a heart attack and she had to leave quickly."

This was something that Booth didn't need right now. "Okay. Bring Parker." He paused. "Sully, thanks for everything."

"What are friends for?" Sully replied hanging up the call.

--

Booth continued to pace hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. A nurse had been kind enough to find a fresh pair of scrubs for him to change into, commenting that he looked like he had walked through hell, earning glares from the rest of the team. He knew he would explode if someone didn't give him information anytime soon. Booth left the restroom and made his way down the halls, stopping at the nursery glancing in seeing all the new lives that had entered the world. He made a silent promise to them that he was going to make the world safer, the same promise that he made to Parker years ago.

He continued down, stopping at the NICU, hoping that Brennan's son had made it to make it there. Booth started panicking for a moment, until they saw them wheel him in. The neonatologist gestured for him to enter; the nurse handed him a mask and a sterile gown. He was hesitant for a moment, taken back by all the incubators in the room.

"It's intimidating, but it gets better." The nurse told him, sensing his hesitation, helping him tie the back of the sterile gown.

Booth walked over to the doctor, extending his hound out to her.

"Special Agent Seeley Booth."

"Doctor Claudia Dean. You have a strong little mane here." She commented hooking up the warmer.

"He gets that from his mother." Booth whispered. "Do you know how she is doing?"

"I'll have the nurse call up to find out about her. What name would you like on the incubator?" She asked pulling out the pen.

"We haven't discussed that." He said bitterly. Booth felt a renewed anger toward Miller. There was so much that Miller had cheated her from. "Baby Boy Brennan will suffice for now."

"Agent Booth," Dr. Bean began.

"Seeley, please, you are taking care of my son." He told her.

"Call me Claudia." Her compassionate eyes met his. "There are several precautions we have to take with your son. He is going to be feed through a NG tube for the time being, in a couple of weeks we will call the NICU speech therapist to assess his suck and swallow reflex. His eyes will be taped shut until he has a chance to develop his visual abilities. You son has been placed in an oxygen rich environment. He will be on a ventilator until we can wean him from it. He had low birth weight. We are going to feed him now. Would you like to do the honors?" Booth nodded listening to the instructions. He successfully feed him without problems. Dr. Dean turned to leave, and stopped for a moment turning back to him. "Seeley don't be afraid to touch him. Let him know you are here."

She stopped to speak to the nurse, and smiled back at him. "Seeley, Ms. Brennan is out of surgery. They stopped the bleeding and was able to save her uterus. She is in recovery now and they are setting up a room for her in the ICU to monitor her brain swelling. The worst is over now. All we can do now is wait."

Booth nodded, taking in the news, turning back towards the baby. He was so small. The nurse brought over a rocking chair and Booth gratefully sat down. "Hey there Tiger. I'm your Daddy."Booth reached in the incubator and rubbed his small arm with his finger. "You are going to grow up and be strong." He assured himself.

"Like me?" Parker whispered, climbing up on Booth's lap. "The nurse told me I could come in as long as I was quiet and dressed like you." He looked up and saw Sully walking away from the NICU.

"Parker," Booth started, unsure of how to proceed, "This is Dr. Brennan's little boy."

Parker peered in. "He's tiny."

"He'll grow." Booth informed him.

"I'll protect him from the bullies." Parker told his dad.

Parker settled quietly into Booth's lap. "I missed you last night Daddy."

"I missed you too Bub." Booth sat quietly rocking him and Parker back and forth until he heard his son fall asleep. He looked one last time in the incubator. "I'll be back soon Tiger." He quietly left the NICU knowing that the baby was in good hands.

Booth deftly carried Parker down the hall, ignoring the protests of his injured arm. He entered the waiting room, knowing that he was going to be bombarded with questions the instant he entered.

"Any news?" Angela asked.

"Bones is in recovery. The baby is in the NICU. You all can see him if you like. There are tubes and wires everywhere, but Baby Brennan will be okay."

"Is that what the doctor said?" Zack asked.

"It's what I know. With Bones as his mom . . ." Booth trailed off.

"They have good fighting genes." Max finished Booth's thoughts walking in through the door. Booth had called him and Russ. They must have just made it from North Carolina. "Get some rest guys. Russ, Amy and I will take the night shift. We will call any of you if there are any changes." Booth knew when not to argue. "Thanks for finding my little girl."

--

Sully dropped Booth back at his house. Booth invited him in and made coffee when he had Parker settled down and in bed.

"What are you going to do with Parker now that Rosa is incapacitated for a little bit?"

"I'll call my mom in a few minutes and see if she can come to help me out for a couple of weeks. She and Parks get along great." Booth answered sipping his coffee.

"Do you realize we haven't sleep in 48 hours?" Sully said, adding sugar to his coffee.

"I feel it." Booth responded, getting more tired by the moment.

"Booth," Sully reached into his pocket and produced an envelope. "Temperance wrote you several letters while in captivity. I didn't read them, I just made copies of the notebook she had for you. There is also some letters for the group at the Jeffersonian. I trust you will see that the letters get in the appropriate hands."

Booth nodded, accepting the packet. "Thanks for helping me man."

Sully nodded. "You would have done the same for me."

Booth locked the door and made the call to his mom, who immediately started packing to come down and help him out. He was grateful for her. He looked in on his young son, who was out the minute his head hit the pillow. Booth turned to draw the drapes, Rosa must have left in a hurry. He stared out the window hoping that Brennan and her baby would make it through the night. Exhausted, Seeley Booth attempted to fight sleep just in case Brennan woke up and needed him. Eventually though, his exhaustion won out and he fell asleep in the arm chair, with a picture of him and his Bones on his lap.

**AN: Y'all asked for more, I delivered more in my cold induced delirium. I hope that all of this made sense. Please review. Have a great night.**


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen:

The early April morning sun streamed into the window casting a soft light onto Parker Booth's sleeping form. Booth jumped slightly when he heard his mother approach behind him. She had arrived around two in the morning, waking her son up to put him in bed. Joyce Booth knew that her son had told her to wait until the morning, but she heard the pain in her son's voice and couldn't put off driving down from Philadelphia.

"Seeley, Honey, you need to get some sleep." Joyce admonished him. When she had come in, the house was in disarray, and her son was fast asleep on an armchair. She knew he wasn't taking care of himself, and she was going to remedy that.

He stared at his mother with sad eyes. He was glad that she had come but hadn't wanted her to disrupt her life to help put his back together. Booth felt like he was twelve again needing his mother again. "Mom . . ."

"Seeley, now show me where everything is in the kitchen so I can start making breakfast for my boys." She pushed him into the kitchen, and Booth was grateful for the distraction. He pointed out where all the important items would be and he started straightening up the living room. "Seeley, I can do that."

"No Mom, it's okay. I need to keep busy."

"Seeley tell me why you called for me to come here." Joyce Booth stared at her son with the same intensity Booth would stare at Brennan.

Booth didn't get to say much when he had called his mother, she had immediately agreed, not asking for any details. "I told you Rosa's mother had a heart attack, I need someone to help me with Parker." Booth paused, knowing that she would eventually find out, "We found Bones Mom."

Joyce knew that her son's partner had been kidnapped almost seven months previously and the toll it was taking on her son. She knew though that Booth would have never given up, and that is what made her so proud of her little boy. "Seeley, that's wonderful."

"She is in a coma. Her baby is in the NICU . . ." Booth began.

"Her baby? Dr. Brennan was pregnant?" Joyce was amazed.

"She was pregnant during her captivity." Booth told her while she was making the toast. He sat down at the table, noticing the envelope that Sully had dropped off the previous night.

"Seeley, I'm going to freshen up for the day. Parker's breakfast is on the stove, toast is ready." She informed him leaving him to his thoughts. His mother always knew when he needed to be alone.

"Thanks Mom." He told her as she leaned in to kiss him on the forehead. It was certainly good to have her there.

When he was satisfied that he was going to have a couple of uninterrupted moments, he tore open the manila envelope. Booth noted how thick it was. He glanced at the first line:

_Dear Booth,_

_Today marks the one month anniversary of me being imprisoned. I wonder if you are still looking for me, but then again, I know you are still looking for me because that is what makes you the man you are. Booth there are so many things we have left to do in this world, there are so many things we have left to say to each other . . . I just wish I could say them to you in person rather than in a letter._

_You are the best part of me. You helped me evolve into the woman I am today. You gave me back my family and helped me realize there is more than one type of family. You helped me heal parts of me that I didn't realize was broken. You are the greatest man that I know. Please don't fault yourself for what has happen; there been no way you could have foreseen what was going to happen._

_Booth that night we spent together meant the world to me. You have shown me what love is and taught me how to give and receive love. Thank you._

_The night we were together produced a child. Booth I found out today that I am pregnant with our child. I'm overwhelmed with so many emotions right now I don't even know how to begin, but I do know that I am going to continue to fight, to figure out a way to you so our child will get to know the wonderful man that is his father._

_I don't know if you will find me, but I know that you would continue to look for me even after everyone would say it was a lost cause. If it is too late for me, I don't want you to blame yourself for anything, I know that you did all that you could to find me._

_Seeley, if it is too late, and you don't find me, I want you to have another partner that will look out for you the way that I have. Bury me and our child next to my mother, please. I want you to continue to fight for justice and continue to give closure to the people that would not otherwise have had it. You are a compassionate, caring man who deserves the best that life has to offer._

_Right now I am listening to the church bells, it is playing a song that I don't know, but it is really beautiful. It helps me being able to hear the church bells, it reminds me of you, helping me hold on to us. I know that you will find me before it is too late._

_Always,_

_Temperance_

Booth put down the letter digesting the information that he was the father of her child. Tears rose to his eyes, cursing himself for not finding her sooner, for not being there with her, for not being able to protect her and his son from harm. He turned the coffee cup around in his hands, staring at the cuts he received when pulling her from the hell that she was confined in. Anger surged inside of him, anger at himself, anger at Miller, anger at not being able to do anything to help her now.

He flung the coffee cup across the kitchen, it connected with the refrigerator, breaking into a million pieces. Booth sunk to the floor of the kitchen, trying to control the emotions that he felt. So much was taken from them. He breathed deep, trying to catch his breath.

"Seeley." His mother spoke softly, lowering herself to the ground to sit next to him. "Breathe Baby, just breathe. Everything is going to be okay." Joyce had witnessed moments like this before and knew what to do to help him.

"Mom, oh God Mom. I'm so scared for them. What if Temperance doesn't make it? What if my son never lives to see his first birthday?" He whispered. Joyce looked at him confused. He explained what had happened between them the night of the wedding and what Brennan had written to him in the letter.

His mother was secretly excited at her son finally finding happiness and angry for what he had to go through. She had known that he had been in love with this woman more than Tessa and Rebecca combined, she knew it from the moment he started complaining about his infuriating partner. "Seeley you can't keep living in the what ifs. You have a son now in his bedroom that needs to be gotten up so he can have breakfast, and then we are going to all go to the hospital together. All you can do now Son is live in the here and now."

Booth nodded knowing that he needed to step up now and be there. "Mom you are going to love your new grandson. He's a fighter, just like his mother. Parker is going to love having a little brother." Booth smiled sadly. He walked over to the coffee mess and started cleaning it up.

"Seeley, I'll do that. Go ahead and get started on your day. I can't wait to meet my new grandson." Joyce touched him lightly on the shoulder. He smiled at his mother and picked up the rest of the letters knowing that there was more that Brennan wanted him to know.

--

Booth entered the hospital, feeling a little better about the day. His mother and Parker were in tow. Max smiled seeing Booth enter. "Booth." He greeted the man.

"Hi Max. Has there been any change?" Booth handed Max a cup of coffee knowing he probably needed it.

"They just took Tempe down for more testing. They wanted to check on the swelling, but no change so far." Max informed him. "Booth thank you for finding my little girl." The men shook hands and Booth introduced him to his mother and Parker.

"Max have you seen her son yet?" Booth asked.

"He's gorgeous. Amy is down there now." Max said. "So who do I need to kill for getting my little girl in trouble?"

Booth looked nervously at Max, "According to Bones, that would be me." He admitted softly. "And we don't want you going to kill anyone. I don't think I can do what I did again."

"Nothing but the straight and narrow now Booth," Max assured him. "You are going to be putting Miller to death row though right?"

"I'm persecuting his ass to the fullest extent of the law." Cullen walked in, shaking Booth and Max's hand. "We have Caroline on the case now." Booth nodded knowing that Caroline wouldn't quit. "Booth is it true what I heard, that Brennan was pregnant in that hell?"

Booth nodded. "She gave birth yesterday to my son."

Realization dawned in Cullen. "Booth you were the arresting agent. We need your statement soon, but take your time."

"Thank you Sir." Booth told him picking up Parker who was getting restless at the moment.

"Daddy can we see Bones?"

"Soon Parks, soon." He promised him.

--

Joyce soon took Parker so they could go explore the sites of DC together so Booth could be alone and have time to process everything. He went down to the NICU to relieve Amy of some of her duties.

"Hi Baby. Daddy's here." He reached in and stroked the infant's arm. He sat in the rocking chair, swaying back and forth. He sat for half an hour feeding the little baby. He stood stretching, noticing Angela standing there observing him. He walked out to her.

"Max filled us in. How are you?" Angela asked.

"I'm fine. Baby is doing okay, and we are just waiting for Bones now to wake up." He offered her a smile. "Can you sit with him for a couple of minutes, I need a breather."

"Sure Booth." She smiled sadly at him as he opened up a door that led outside. He picked a spot by the roses and sat down to read the rest of her letters.

_Dear Booth,_

_I hear him coming. Sometimes I can make myself believe that it is you, coming to find me. That you are going to wrap us up in your arms. Sometimes if I close my eyes long enough I can imagine me, you, Parker, and Connor at the park. I felt him kick today and I just knew he was a boy that he was going to be strong just like his dad. Please Booth, if anything were to happen to me, keep Connor safe. I felt our little boy today, Connor Christopher Booth. I wish that you could have felt him kick too._

_Always,_

_Temperance_

Booth folded the letter and placed it back in his pocket. He gowned up and found the nurse, having him place the name on the incubator.

Angela watched as Booth took off his Saint Christopher's medal and placed it on top the incubator. "Connor Christopher Booth, I'm your father, Seeley Christopher Booth. " He told him, formally introducing himself to the small child. "I will keep you safe forever." He promised the small child. He heard a knock on the window and saw that his mother was out there with Parker, he went out to greet them, holding Parker up so he could see his brother.

Hodgins came down the hall. "Dr. Brennan is back from having the test done."

**AN: So I hope this doesn't disappoint. I hope you all enjoyed this installment. Please review.**


	14. Chapter 14

_Chapter Fourteen_

Booth went towards Brennan's room not knowing what to expect or what to think. All he knew was that he needed her to wake up. He needed to see her beautiful blue eyes that would look into the very soul of him. Booth stood soon found himself outside her room, he traced her name with his finger tips. Max stood beside him.

"If I could trade places with her Max, I would in a heartbeat." Booth told him quietly. "It should be my name on the door."

"Booth you are a good man but learn now, short of breaking any laws, sometimes you can't always keep the ones you love safe from harm." Max counseled him gently. "How is Connor?"

"How did you know his name?"

"Temperance always liked the name growing up. She once demanded that her mother and I give her a little brother named Connor." Max explained. "She is a demanding woman Booth. Good luck."

Booth smiled genuinely for the first time. "Thanks Max. Connor is doing as best as can be expected. He is so little, almost 2 lbs. Dr. Dean has been a Godsend helping with everything. We have a long road ahead of us though with the little man."

"We will all be there to help out Booth, we are of course family." Max smiled at him. He clapped Booth on the shoulder. They walked into the hospital room not knowing what was waiting for them.

Booth entered Brennan's hospital room, not fully prepared for the state that his partner would be in. Brennan lay still on the bed, a ventilator was helping her with her breathing, cuts and bruises adorned her pale face. He reached over and stroked her face. "Temperance." He whispered her name. "I'm here now. I'm not leaving you."

Booth reached out and let his fingers run through her hair. "I need you Temperance. I don't want to do this alone." He confessed softly to her. Booth heard the doctor walk in through the door, Booth acknowledge him, still holding on to her hand.

"Agent Booth, Mr. Keenan, I'm Dr. Andreade. I am the neurologist assigned to Ms. Brennan. Agent Booth since you are her health care power of attorney I have to ask are you alright with medical information being released to Mr. Keenan."

"Yes, he is her father." Booth allowed, "And her brother as well."

"Agent Booth, Mr. Kennan, Temperance's swelling has gone down a little, but not as much as we would have hoped. Right now she is on a ventilator that is helping her breathing. Since she was dehydrated we have to pump fluids into her, and that isn't helping with the swelling either. That accounts for the slow progress. We will soon try to wean her from the ventilator considering that the swelling around her brain stem has alleviated. Right now it is a wait and see deal. She is strong." Dr. Andreade explained to them.

"Thank you." Booth told the doctor, pulling the chair next to her. Max had left to tell the news to the crew, leaving Booth alone with Brennan. He stared at her face, conjuring moments between them in his mind. "Keep fighting Bones. We need you." Booth kept vigil at her bedside, not wanting to tear his eyes off of her.

Several hours had passed and Booth had fallen asleep by her bedside. The day was turning into dusk, and the sky was illuminating in pinks and purple. The sounds of the ICU had fallen into a dull roar allowing Booth to find some moments of peace in his slumber.

"Mr. Booth?" A soft voice woke him from his sleep. Her hand was still in his.

"Yes?"

"I'm Amy, the respiratory therapist. I am here to attempt to remove the ventilator." She explained to him. "What we need is for her to maintain 16 to 18 breaths per minute." She hooked up a pulse-ox to Brennan.

"What if she doesn't?" Booth asked, wiping the sleep from his eyes.

"Then we will do progressive weaning." She shut the ventilator. Booth watched as her chest raised on its own.

"That's it Bones. One breath at a time." Booth encouraged her.

The respiratory therapist stayed for a little longer, placing her on a monitor in case anything where to happen to her, but for the moment it was a step in the right direction. He leaned down and kissed her forehead. "Bones I'm going to check on Connor." He left the room making his way out to the courtyard.

He sat for a couple of moments, letting his emotions come to the surface. Cam had seen him walk out to the courtyard, she was out there taking a call from Cullen. Cam watched as all the walls that Seeley Booth had built up crumble and all the anger that he held inside of him came pouring out. She watched as he punched the bench he was sitting on, letting the anger flow through him.

"Damn it!" He screamed.

Cam walked over to him, sitting down next to him. She placed her hand on his arm, noting that he had ripped open the stitches. "Seeley." She said quietly.

"Cam I didn't notice you." He said sheepishly.

"Must have made you one hell of a sniper." She said dryly.

"Bones told me to that once when I sneezed with my grass allergy." Booth replied.

"Well, you wouldn't have a grass allergy in the desert." Cam told him logically.

"I know that." Booth said, staring at the hospital. "I'm sorry you had to see that. I'm just so angry. Bones is fighting for her life, Connor is fighting for his life, and all because a sicko wanted to fit her into his world. You can't make Bones fit anywhere she doesn't want to fit."

Cam nodded, acknowledging him. "Dr. Brennan always did things her own way. That is what she does. Booth, she will continue to fight for you. She stayed alive in that long enough for you to be able to find her, now she is healing. She will make it back to you."

"Thanks Cam."

"Now, let us go inside and get your stitches redone and hand bandaged that way you can go see your son.

--

Booth sat next to Connor's incubator, singing softly to his child. "Sorry Connor, if there is one thing I didn't inherit from your grandmother it was her singing abilities." He stroked the infant's back. They had weaned him from the ventilator earlier in the day, which was a relief to Booth. Connor was on regular oxygen now.

He took a letter out of his pocket. "Connor, your mother wrote to you so many times baby." His deep voice started penetrating the hollow walls of the NICU.

_Dear Connor,_

_I often wonder what you will look like, if you will have blue eyes like me, or brown eyes like your father. Will you pursue sciences like I did, or become a football player like your daddy? Either way is fine with me. You are perfect no matter what. _

_You father is a wonderful man with a sense of justice that I hope we will instill in you just like he has with Parker. He is a great father, who I am sure won't let you become socially inept like me._

_Connor I hope if there is one thing that I can ever teach you is to juggle your life better than I have mine. I want you to really live life, I want you to explore your sense of wonder with reckless abandon. Don't work all the time. Fall in love every chance you get, but settle with the person you can't see living your life without._

_Connor, think of your heart like a glass ball (metaphoric I know, but your father has gotten me thinking in metaphors.) If you aren't true to your heart, then the glass will shatter and break into a million pieces, and even if you can put it back together again, it has forever changed shape because you won't find all the pieces. Now with that being said, I believe that your heart will be broken, and probably more than once. But don't fear this because it will forever teach you and change you in ways you can never imagine possible. _

_I know this because your father has done this for me, not so much of breaking my heart, but I let him in, and he changed it, filling in some of the huge gaps that were left. He has helped me become the mother I hope to be to you one day. I promise you I will keep fighting until he finds us._

_I love you._

_Mom_

Booth put down the letter, noticing the nurse in the corner dabbing her eyes dry. He hoped that Brennan would soon wake up and gaze upon the small miracle that was part him and her.

"Agent Booth?" Carrie the night nurse walked up to him. "Visiting hours ended several minutes ago, but would you like to hold him before you go?"

"Is that alright?"

"He won't break, and he has been able to maintain his body temperature a little longer, so a minute or two isn't going to hurt." She reached into the plastic box and gingerly took out the small baby, placing him in Booth's arms. "I'll be back in a couple of moments."

Booth gazed at the small baby in his arms, marveling on how much smaller he was than Parker had been. He was almost scared to breathe on the child. "Hi Connor." He whispered softly. Connor opened his sharp blue eyes, staring at him for a couple of moments before closing his eyes again.

Carrie came back over and placed the infant back onto the warmer. "I'll see you tomorrow Agent Booth."

"Thanks Carrie."

He wandered out into the corridor, running into Cam. "Booth, Brennan is regaining some consciousness."

**AN: Sorry it took me a little bit to get out. I had writers block for a little bit. I hope it didn't disappoint. Please read and review.**


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen:

Booth made his way toward Brennan's room noticing the crowd of people that were standing outside the room. He was so anxious to see her eyes again, to be able to talk with her again. Booth just wanted them to get back to being them. He landed himself next to Angela, peering into Brennan's room.

"The doctor is in with Brennan now. They should be out in a moment" Angela reached over and handed him a cup of coffee. "I know that you are running on empty. Hodgins and I thought you could use a refuel. How's the baby?

"Connor is doing wonderfully." Booth responded. "They let me hold him today. He is so small, but Dr. Dean is optimistic that he will be okay. They are going to do some routine tests on him tomorrow, precautionary things. Keep him in your prayers."

He waited anxiously for the doctor to finish his examination. Booth took a long swing of his coffee staring at the door, willing it to open with good news. He really wanted more of that right now.

--

Booth stood staring at the drawn venetian blinds, waiting for the doctor to come it. It felt like an eternity to him . . . he hadn't really spent any time with her since he had found her. He couldn't wait to hear her voice, to just try to be them again. Booth couldn't wait to tell her all about their son, the color of his eyes. Blue, just like hers. Logically he knew the color might not be permanent, but he knew the color would be blue, and he chalked it up to father's intuition. He sipped his coffee and stared at the clock, wishing to God he could turn back the hands of time before this ordeal had began.

"Agent Booth?" Dr. Andreade finally finished his assessment.

"Yeah." Booth's voice was hoarse, raw with emotion.

"Ms. Brennan is asking for you." Dr. Andreade halted Booth from storming into the room. "Don't let her get too riled up and don't over exert her energy. She needs time to heal, and her brain is still somewhat swelled if not bruised."

Booth nodded walking into the room, anxious to see his Bones.

--

The lights were dimmed in the room. She was laying on the hospital bed extremely still, almost too still for Booth's taste. He would never admit it to her, but his greatest fear was seeing her laying too still, knowing that she had died. Booth shook the image from his head, pulling the chair up beside her. He took in the image of her. The bruises he knew would slowly fade, but he had no clue what the ramifications of captivity would do to her emotionally, and those scars he knew would take longer to heal than any physical ones that were sustained.

"Booth." His heart leapt at the sound of her voice. Her voice was raw from the intubation sounding gravelly and strangled. He reached for the water pitcher and held some water up to her lips. "Thanks." She mumbled sipping it slowly.

"Bones, I've missed you so much." Booth admitted softly, stroking the back of her hand tenderly.

She smiled at him, confused by his comment. She was just admitted a couple days ago, wasn't she? "I can't wait to get back to work." She admitted.

Booth stared at her, "Bones, you've been gone for almost seven months. We just dug you out of that hell three days ago. You need to give your body time to heal. You hit your head really hard having a seizure down there. You can't go charging back into crime fighting." He attempted to reason with her.

Booth studied her, she was confused, but she was so damn proud she wasn't going to let him know that. "Booth, I haven't been gone seven months . . . Why am I here? What happened to me on the case?"

"What are you talking about?" Booth questioned, tenderly stroking her hair, smoothing down the stray pieces.

"We were chasing after Michaels, remember?" Brennan explained to him impatiently, angry at why he wasn't telling her what she needed to know.

Flashback:

It was a dark day because the clouds had rolled in from the ocean, casting a cooler breeze on DC. They had been pursuing former Detective Shuller for the killing of four DC metro cops. It pleased Booth they were finally going to put this cop killer behind bars.

"Bones, stay here, I'll apprehend him." Booth instructed as he pulled up to the lumber yard where the man was currently employed.

"Booth, I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself." She flung back at him, tired of him always trying to protect her.

Booth sighed knowing that he was never going to win. "Fine but stay close to me, I don't want to have to find you in the mess of lumber."

"Fine." Brennan replied, taking out her gun, popping open the barrel checking the rounds.

Booth groaned, wishing she would get a smaller gun if she was going to carry one. "I really wish you would tell me where you kept that in your Wonder Woman outfit." Booth said wistfully.

"Wouldn't you like to know." She grinned at him cheekily.

They hopped out of the car, calling for Shuller. They spotted him running off the moment he heard them call. Booth took off, expecting for Brennan to follow him, except when he noticed she wasn't behind him, he started panicking. What if Shuller found her first? He picked up his speed hoping that he would find the bastard before she did.

Booth heard the sound of her shouting his name and the sickening sound of wooden two by fours being thrown at her. He rounded the corner in time to see on connect with her head. He saw her slump to the ground. Booth's eyes connected with Shuller's.

"That's my partner you Son of a Bitch!" Booth raised his gun and fired a warning shot, exceedingly close to Shuller's left ear. Shuller raised his hands in defeat. Booth quickly cuffed him and made his way over to Brennan, hoping that she would be okay.

He heard her groaning as she got herself off the ground. "Hey you probably shouldn't move, you have a head injury Bones." He admonished her, helping her up, looking at the gash that went across her forehead. "I'm taking you to the hospital."

"No, I'm fine. Let's get this cop killer into custody so we can get on with the rest of our lives while he fries in hell." She groused out, not letting him know how much her head was really throbbing.

"You have to go to the hospital."

"No. Booth if you take me, I'm just going to be a total pain in their ass and not cooperate."

He nodded knowing that she was right. "Fine but you have to let me clean the wound at least and bandage it. Then you have to stay up with me all night in case you have a concussion. If you don't do that, then I will take you to the hospital right now and they will make you stay overnight in observation."

"Fine." She answered, trudging back to the car.

--

Booth stared at her. "He hit you in the head with a two by four."

"That would explain the headache." She mumbled, wallowing into her bed sheets. "Did you get him?" She whispered, her eyes were closing, Booth knew soon she would succumb to sleep.

"Yeah, yeah we did." He whispered.

He went to dislodge his hand from hers, knowing that he needed to find the doctor to find out about this amnesia, but she tightened her grip on his hand.

"Please stay with me." Brennan asked, unsure of why she had asked him to stay. All she knew is that she was craving his presence, like she had gone months without it. She felt childish almost, knowing that he would be more comfortable in his bed, but she needed him. Brennan felt like she spent months waiting for him, and didn't want to relinquish his hold just yet.

"Anything you want Temperance." He sat back down in the hard plastic chair, waiting for her to fall asleep. Booth stared at her for what seemed like an eternity, wondering what the future was going to hold for him, her, and the little baby down the hall. Satisfied that Brennan was fast asleep, he quietly made his way out to the hall to inform the squints and her family what he had found out, wondering how long the amnesia was going to last.

--

_AN: Yes, I know, she's awake, hmmm - so many places to go, don't know where yet. It's hard writing Brennan as a mom, and well, with Baby in the Bough, I have some ideas. I don't want to make her to mushy . . . but I still want to make her maternal . . . and with the circumstances of the baby's birth, well . . . who know's where I am going to go with it - I certainly don't and that is new ground for me. _

_Sorry, life has begun to catch up so we may be looking at only one update a week with this - plus it is taking me a little bit to catch my muse. Please don't kill me on where it went. As always, I hope all the readers have enjoyed this little installment, drop me a line, bake me a cookie, or review, either way it makes me happy. Thanks!_

_To everyone who is still out there reading, believe it or not, I am still contemplating my next move in Coming Home and the long awaited return of How Much More (sequel or just continuation, an idea is still nagging me though) . . . hang in there, I am working on one at a time though._


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter Fifteen:

Booth watched as she slept, hoping that nightmares wouldn't meet her in her slumber. He had to deal with nightmares for most of his adult life and didn't want her to suffer his fate. He watched as her chest rose steadily, thanking God that physically it looked like she was going to be healing just fine. He kissed her on her forehead, hoping that the gesture wouldn't stir her. A faint smile graced her lips as he settled on the recliner that one of the nurses had brought over for him. Booth finally let his eyes close, hoping that he would catch some rest for a couple of minutes. What he didn't know was that it was going to be the first time in seven months that his sleep would go uninterrupted.

Brennan smiled as she felt Booth's lips hit her forehead, not at all surprised. He was that type of man. Honest, moral . . . knight in shining FBI standard issue armor, as Angela would say. She was concerned about what he had said about her missing for seven months. Brennan shifted slightly, groaning in pain, wondering where she had gotten the heavy bruises on her ankle. She held Booth's hand tighter, not wanting to let go. For some reason she just needed to feel his presence. She finally let the Sandman take her away to his dreamland, hoping that tomorrow would shed some light on her predicament.

_Brennan's dream:_

_Miller was standing over her, he had struck her again. She brought herself back up to her feet, staring at him defiantly. "Do it again." She challenged again._

_He laughed, bringing his had up expecting to see her flinch. Anger flashed across her face when she didn't flinch. "Not scared of me are we Dr. Brennan." Miller noted. "You are the first. The other's begged for me not to hurt them."_

_"You aren't any worse than any other criminal. Booth will find me." Brennan hoped._

_Miller reached out and struck her again across the face, fireworks exploded in her head as she landed on the floor. He laughed, picking her back up by her hair, pulling her close to him. His excitement was evident. Brennan did all she could to keep from losing the contents of her stomach._

_"Don't do this . . ." She pleaded with him as he put his rough hands all over her, coping feels._

_He laughed. He pulled down his zipper as the church bells started going off. He swore a silent curse and threw her to the ground, leaving her there sobbing._

_Brennan didn't understand what made Miller stop his actions, but she was grateful he did. She pulled herself back off the ground, making her way toward the mirror to splash some cold water on her face._

_--_

_Brennan paced around her cell, placing her hands on her still flat stomach. She stared at the positive pregnancy test. She was scared, terrified. She rushed over to the toilet, throwing up. She sank down to the floor, sobbing silently afraid that Miller or his cohort would come back in and torment her. She heard the cell next to her close and another door slam behind them. She stood back up with a silent resolve, she was going to survive for her and her baby._

_--_

_Brennan woke up what she could only assume was pretty much early morning. She stood, working the kinks out of her limbs, placing her hand on her very round stomach. She walked across the bare floor, her feet even though she couldn't see them now, she could assume were caked with dirt. She scratched the date and inscription into the wall, vowing to hold on for as long as she could. She placed her hand on the wall, knowing that whoever was on the other side had given up hope. _

_Brennan stared at the dates on the wall, knowing that she would never give up hope. Booth would find them and they would get out of the hell she had to endure. She placed her right hand over her stomach, her mother's ring still prominently in place. She wondered if she was going to have a boy or a girl. She walked over to the sink, hearing her chains clank together, starting her morning routine. She was reaching for the toothpaste when she felt a definite movement in her abdomen. She pressed where she felt it and was rewarded with a kick._

_"Connor." She breathed out, knowing instinctively that she was going to have a little boy. She sank to the ground and cried, wishing that Booth was there to feel the first kick._

_--_

Booth woke when he felt the sudden jerking of Brennan's hand. He glanced at his watch, 3:00 AM. He stroked her face, calling for her to wake up gently. Her eyes opened slowly, taking in the darkness around her. She moved, shifting slowly in her bed, wondering if being rescued was just a dream.

Brennan felt his presence, and felt immediately reassured. "Booth." She whispered out.

"I'm here Bones." Booth murmured in her ear. Tears started flowing, and he immediately wrapped his arms around her.

"You're here." She whispered between her sobs. "You never gave up looking."

"I will never give up on you." He promised her.

She reached down to feel her stomach becoming distressed when she didn't feel the familiar baby bump that kept her company for all those months in that cell. Booth noticed the movement and brought her hand up to his lips and kissed it. "Connor is fine." He promised her. "Try to get some sleep. You need to be stronger."

"How could I forget my baby! Take me to see him please."

Booth felt the war waging inside of him, knowing that Brennan wouldn't rest until she saw him, he found a nurse to help them with the task.

--

Booth pushed Brennan down the corridor of the hospital that he had walked down so many times before her. He pushed her up to the observation glass so she could peer in on her son.

He pointed Connor easily. "He is so beautiful Temperance." Booth told her, while watching his son take strong and steady breaths. It was such an improvement from the previous day. They had hooked him back up to the ventilator at nights, but were in the process of weaning him from it totally.

"He is so tiny." She whispered.

"He will grow to be big and strong." Booth assured her, the same way he did with Parker.

"How do you know?" Tears started pouring out of her eyes.

"He is part you, part me." Booth explained, pushing her away. "You need to get some sleep now and Connor needs he rest as well. We will see him in a couple of hours."

"Booth I need to stay longer, and watch him. I need to make sure he is okay." She whispered.

"A few more moments." Booth knew what she was going through. When Parker was born he stood at the observation glass for hours.

He pulled up a chair beside her, watching the tears flow down her cheeks. "What's wrong?"

"I'm an awful mother." She whispered.

He chuckled. "You just got started, you can't know if you are awful quite yet. It takes a couple of years to get affirmation on that."

"Booth, I'm not joking."

"Bones, I'm not joking either. You are a wonderful mother."

"Wonderful mothers don't block out entire pregnancies." She persisted on.

"You had a brain injury." He argued with her. "Use that oversize cranium of yours. Your brain was bruised in the area of memory. That is why you didn't remember. You memory probably still hasn't fully recovered which is why we have to get you back so you can rest."

"How do you know I'm going to be a good mom?" She asked him as he thumbed away some of her tears.

"Because Temperance you are good at everything you try. It's not going to be any different at parenting." Booth reasoned with her. "I know because you fought to stay alive in the worst of situations, you kept fighting, you fought for the both of you when it would have been easier to give up. You are going to be a fabulous mother." He reassured her, wrapping her up in his arms.

She breathed in his scent . . . he smelled so good. She missed him so much, and exhaustion began to overtake her. "I'm ready to go back now."

He nodded, pushing her back to her room. Booth helped her get settled back into her bed. He began to pull the chair next to her to start his vigil.

"Booth, lay next to me." She spoke softly, so soft that if the sounds of the room had been any louder, he wouldn't have heard her. Booth didn't say anything, he just shifted his weight a little closer to her, mindful of her injuries. He pulled her close, vowing he would never let anything happen to her again.

**AN: So I wasn't so happy with the last chapter so I decided to redeem myself hopefully. So here is the next installment. Review please if you enjoyed it, let me know if you have any idea where you want this to go next.**


	17. Chapter 17

_Chapter Seventeen:_

Booth woke slowly, admiring the woman who slept beside him. He had pulled her from her basement hell less than a week previously, he wondered at her strength. He let his fingers dance lightly in her hair, curling the ends in his fingers. Booth drank in her sight, afraid that if he were to blink he would forever lose her again.

"Booth." She murmured softly in her sleep. He checked the bedside clock, knowing that he was going to have to put in a couple of hours at the office today. He eased himself slowly from the bed. "Don't go." She whispered as he reached the door.

He crossed the room in a time span of less than two seconds. Brennan was fully awake, aware of Booth attempting to sneak out the door. "I have to go to the Hoover building for two hours today. I have to do the paperwork."

"Miller?"

Booth tried to gauge the tone of her voice. He couldn't figure if she was angry, scared, or disgusted. Probably a mixture of all three. "Yeah." He affirmed.

"When will you be back?" She asked nonchalantly.

"Soon. Probably before lunch. Would you like me to bring you anything?"

"Some clothes from my own place, my laptop . . ." She began.

"Nope, I'm not giving you the laptop. You have to concentrate on getting better." He reasoned with her. "I'll bring you a couple of books to read and some pajamas." He leaned in and kissed her on her forehead. He wondered where their relationship would be if Miller hadn't kidnapped her. Would they be happy? Would they have broken up? It was all so confusing. They were acting like a couple, without ever having really dated. It was something that he knew that he would have to fix.

"I will see you soon. Breakfast will be here in an hour, please eat it."

"Booth you can't tell me what to do. I'm a grown woman and I can make my own decisions lying in this bed or not." She tried to bait him, hoping he would stay longer to argue.

"That's my girl, always feisty." Max's voice echoed in through the doorway. "I would listen to Booth. He is a tough old bastard."

"Look who's talking." Booth murmured. He smiled at the man, silently thanking him for coming in and taking over. He knew he was seriously neglecting his other son, and needed to see him and his mother today as well. "Thanks Max. Make sure she eats."

"No problem Booth." Max replied, moving a chair across the floor so he could sit next to his daughter. Booth turned before leaving the room, catching a glimpse of her smiling as her father told her something about her nieces. It was good to see her smiling again.

--

Booth pulled up the rocker, reaching in the incubator for Connor. He had gained a couple of ounces, but it wasn't as much as Booth would have liked. His son had just hit the two lbs mark the other day, and he so desperately wanted Connor to catch up quickly so he could just take both of them home.

"Hey there Connor." He spoke softly to him, cradling him against his chest. He was so worried that he was going to hurt the small child, but the nurses and Dr. Dean had assured him that his small son wasn't going to break. Connor fit into the palm of his hand. "Daddy has to go to work, but when I get back, I'll feed you some lunch and maybe bring Mommy down to see you."

Booth placed him back down in the incubator, but only after he placed a soft kiss on his forehead. He watched as Connor began to stretch, yawning contently.

"He's a miracle isn't he?" Angela spoke softly behind him.

"Angela I didn't hear you come in."

"I didn't think you would. You were so wrapped up in your son right then. Your family is your entire world." Angela said, sitting in the chair that was vacated by Booth. He turned to leave, abruptly stopping, turning back to Angela.

"He has a routine brain scan for this morning. I hate to ask, but can you stay with him?"

"And leave my nephew all alone? Never. Now get out of here and get a shower and a shave, you need it." Angela smiled at him, turning back toward Connor, pulling a book out of her bag, reading softly to him.

Booth marveled at how his family had grown in such a short time.

--

Brennan ate her breakfast, making amicable conversation with her father. She finished the last bite, looking down at her plate. Max knew there was something wrong with his daughter immediately.

"Temperance, honey, what is it?"Max pulled the bedside table away from her. She looked so much like her mother, it made his heart ache.

"I was so scared Dad." She confessed quietly to him. "When I was taken by the gravedigger, I was with Hodgins, and that made it more bearable, I knew that we could get out, but this time, I had to fight by myself. I felt weaker."

Max picked up his daughter's hand. "No man is an island."

"Dad that is physically impossible, you would think that you as a science teacher (she used the air quotes) that you would understand that."

"Not physically Temperance, metaphorically. Human do not thrive when they are isolated from others. You draw your strength from being around other people." He explained to her.

"I always thought I was a strong person before." She sniffled. "Miller would come in and taunt me. Dad there is a whole month that I don't remember. I didn't want to tell Booth," She paused. "Dad, what if Connor isn't his?" She asked him. "I don't think I could raise Connor on my own. Booth would be so mad at me."

"Oh Honey, Booth isn't that type of man. He isn't going to be mad if the worse did happen to you." Max reasoned with him, anger bubbling in him. He started counting, trying to keep his cool, but at that moment all he wanted to do was to find an iron pipe. "And even if Booth didn't help you out with Connor, which I highly doubt, you have the guys at the Jeffersonian, you have me, Russ, and Amy. You won't have to do it alone."

"Thanks Dad." She engulfed him in a hug, much like the one she and him shared the day he was acquitted.

"For what it's worth Pumpkin, you are going to be a fabulous mother." Max smiled down at his daughter, amazed at the strength that she possessed. She must have gotten that from her mother.

"Dad, I want you to take me to go see Connor." She asked him, attempting to swing her legs over the side of the bed.

"Sure Honey. Let me go get a nurse to help us." Max promised her. He watched as the nurse helped move her over to the wheelchair, the entire time grumbling how she could walk. He smoothed her hair, and she swatted his hand away. He chuckled to himself, knowing that she was slowly returning to her old self again.

**_--_**

**_AN: Hmmm, I hope you guys enjoyed this installment. I needed a little twist thrown in there - and to answer questions (she convinced herself that Booth was the father, but isn't quite convinced now because of the month she had blocked out - to be explained next chapter)_**

**_Also - I believe the name of the episode was The Road_**

**_ Please review._**

**_Thanks for reading._**


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen:

Booth walked into his house, setting his keys down on the foyer table. His eyes swept around the room at the WII and games that were strewn about, he walked about putting up a couple of the items, taking a brief moment to settle on the couch. He heard Parker upstairs, running about trying to find the newest action figure that Booth had given to his oldest child. He heard his mother in the shower. Booth moved around, feeling the action figure at his back. He grumbled slightly picking up the toy, and walking into the kitchen. He pulled out the Cinnamon Toast Crunch and set out two bowls.

"Parker, breakfast!" He called out to his son.

"Daddy!" Booth heard Parker cry out. He heard the sound of Parker thundering down the stairs, and he braced himself for a hit. "Grandma said today was a teacher work day." He explained, pointing to the calendar on the wall.

Booth glanced over noticing that he had circled that day. "Well then, it looks like you are going to have a full day of doing nothing."

"Uh uh." Parker told him, shoveling food into his mouth.

"Nope Seeley, I was planning on taking him to the museum of natural history and then to the mall. We are going to pick out a few items for Connor."

"Mom, you don't need to do that. You already spoil Parker, don't ruin another one of my sons." Booth admonished her, getting up to give her a kiss on the cheek. Placing the action figure next to his son. "Parker you need to start picking up a little bit better after yourself. When Connor comes home, he is going to be putting stuff in his mouth and you wouldn't want your toys to be ruined now, would you?"

"EW!" Parker exclaimed, just a little bit too much. Bits of cereal came flying from his mouth. "When is Connor going to be coming home?"

"Soon, I hope." Booth sighed, picking up his coffee. He told his mother of the tests they had to run on him while he watched Parker clean up the living room.

--

Booth pulled up to the J. Edgar Hoover building after stopping off at Brennan's condo. He didn't know how they were going to pull off living arrangements, but he figured they would cross that bridge when it came time. He entered his office, looking around. He hadn't been there for quite awhile.

"How's Brennan and the baby?" Cullen asked, letting himself into the younger agent's office.

"Bones is getting her memory back piece by piece, Connor is getting a brain scan right about," Booth checked his watch and sighed, "now, and Parker is being neglected by me."

"It's hard to keep a normal life going when you have a sick loved on in the hospital." Cullen acknowledge. "All you can do is take one day at a time. Take an hour off from the hospital to be with Parker to let him know you still love him, just as much as Connor. When Amy was still alive, my wife and I would take an hour just to go eat or walk in the park. We needed to bond together as well."

Booth nodded, knowing that it was something he was going to rectify soon. "How are we doing with prosecuting Miller?"

"He is pleading not guilty. I wish these sickos would make our days a little easier by just admitting they did it. He has some pretty damning evidence. You and Agent Sullivan did a good job putting together a case."

"Just tell me when you need me to testify." Booth said, signing his name to the report he just completed.

"Booth, this is such a complicated case with you being the arresting agent, your partner and son being the victims, and she is going to have to testify."

"They can't put her up on the stand." Booth interjected. "I won't allow you to do that to her. She is not going to relive that. No one should have to relive their imprisonments."

"We will try our best Agent Booth, however it might come down to that." Cullen tried to prep him for this.

Booth nodded. "I'm finished with the paperwork. Can I take some leave time today?" Booth asked standing up from his desk handing the work to Cullen.

"Sure. Agent Booth, tell Dr. Brennan I hope she gets better soon. It's been dull around here without having her beating up on gang leaders." Cullen smiled as he walked out the door.

Booth chuckled, knowing that she had been sorely missed around the FBI building.

--

Brennan stared at the incubator watching Connor breathe in and out, willing him to take more breaths so his oxygen stats would stay level. "Hi there Baby. It's Mommy." She spoke softly to him. She sang softly to him like she did so many times before he was born. She ran her finger over his toes, counting them as she touched each one.

"Daddy should be here at any moment." She assured the small baby. "He is so much better at this than I am. I really hope that Booth turns out to be your daddy. He is the best Daddy that any little boy could ask for."

"Why wouldn't he be mine Temperance?" Booth spoke softly walking up to her, pulling a rocking chair next to her wheelchair.

"Booth, there is a whole month that I don't remember. What if Miller actually did something to me during those months and that is why I am blocking it out? What if Connor isn't yours?" Tears started rolling down her face. "The thought of you raising our child is what helped me through all those months of hell. I think I just wanted him to be yours so badly, I didn't even think of the possibility that he might not be yours."

Booth stilled her hands with one hand, and tilted her chin up so her eyes met his. "Connor is my child." Booth assured her. "DNA or not, I was there when he was born, I was the first person to feed him, I rock him to sleep. I'm his Dad."

"We still have to know the truth for medical purposes." Brennan tried to tell him.

"It still doesn't change the way I feel. Connor is a fighter. I'm sure he is my child, but we will do a DNA test just to put your mind at ease." He kissed the top of her head, and turned toward the incubator. "Hey Connor. Daddy is here." He reached inside and ran his finger over his son's arm. Connor reached wrapped his hand around Booth's finger. He felt an ache inside of him, feeling the smallness in the grasp, but a surge of love as well.

"You are going to get big and strong. You will be aggravating Parker in no time." He promised his son, and to Brennan.

Booth reached down and grabbed Brennan's hand, squeezing it.

"He will get big and strong won't he Booth?" Brennan asked.

"Connor is going to be just fine." Booth assured her, sending a silent prayer up to God, hoping he wouldn't stop sending the miracles his way.

--

_AN: Sorry it took a little bit to update. Hopefully I can find some time to make them happen a little faster. Please drop a note, one word, just to let me know you guys are still out there and reading. I hope everyone is having a fabulous summer._


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen:

"Were you heading to church?" Brennan's voice filled the room where Booth sat in his Sunday best holding Connor.

"Actually just came from the early morning service. I couldn't sleep." He told her, rocking his son gently. "They are finishing up his tests today."

"I know." Brennan sat in the rocking chair next to him. "God he is so small Booth. Why?"

He looked at her quizzically, tears were flowing down her cheek. He got up and placed Connor gently back in the incubator. "Why what Bones?"

"Why did you have to try to save me!" She got angry with him. "Why couldn't you just let Connor have a little bit more time!" Her voice started rising. "I fought so hard to keep him alive while we were stuck in that basement. I prayed to your God that my son would be okay!" Her fist hit his chest, connecting with a sore point he had from the shrapnel.

"It was either that or let the both of you die." He whispered, knowing it wouldn't make a difference. She was angry and needed someone to blame. "Connor is little." He admitted. "But he is a Booth. He is a fighter."

"You don't know that." She spat back at him. "I see the sick bastard in my head all the time Booth. I know logically that he isn't there, that you caught him and he can't hurt me anymore, but he still is! You didn't have to heard him taunt about how you had given up. He tapped my memorial service and showed it to me! How can you have a memorial service for someone who isn't dead!"

Booth looked at her and surveyed the room. The nurse was staring at them, he knew that it wasn't the place to be having this conversation. He led her gently from the nursery, amazed that she had allowed herself to be led from there. They walked in silence back to her room where he noticed her breakfast tray was left untouched.

"Bones. . ." He wrapped her up in his arms. "What happened?"

"Connor's tests results from the brain scan came back. They found a brain bleed." She slumped down on to her bed.

"Dr. Dean called to tell me that last night." He informed her. "But she also said it was a mild bleed, a stage one and that it was fairly common. That it would heal on its own with little chance of any side effects."

"Little chance means that there is still a chance Booth. He might never hear my voice, he might never learn how to read, he might never be able to play soccer with his brother."

Booth walked over to where she was and sat down next to her on the bed. "He might grow up to be big and strong, a cop like his father, a brain like his mother. He might become a famous neurosurgeon." He wiped some of her tears away with the pads of his thumbs. "Don't give up on the little man just yet."

"How can you be so calm?" She turned and faced him.

He rested his forehead against hers and whispered, "I have faith."

--

Joyce Booth had raised two sons, held a job writing jingles, and had dinner on the table every night by 6:00 sharp. She thought she had it rough, but not as rough as her youngest son. She clutched one grandson in one arm and juggled a giant bag in another.

"Grandma do you think Daddy and Bones will like our surprise?"

"I'm sure they will Pumpkin." She ruffled his head and smiled affectionately at him. God help her, she was so much like his father.

They got off the elevator and made their way down to the room. She smiled seeing her son fast asleep in the armchair. His partner was wide awake, looking out the window.

"Temperance?" Joyce spoke softly so she wouldn't startle the young woman.

"Grandma, we call her Bones." Parker explained to her.

"It's okay Parker." Brennan smiled at the youngster. "You must be Mrs. Booth."

"Joyce please." They shook hands. "You know when Seeley was in the hospital recovering from his injuries he never ate his breakfast. They always make the worst stuff. Parker and I thought it would be nice to surprise you and Seeley with Sunday brunch."

"I helped Grandma make muffins!" Parker squealed. "And I brought the book you were reading to me!"

Booth groaned from his position in the armchair, opening up his eyes. "I smell Mom's muffins." He sat a little straighter, loosening his tie more. Joyce opened up a bag and set the muffin on the table for Brennan. She smiled gratefully, accepting the muffin.

"Thank you. You really didn't have to go through all the fuss." Brennan bit into her muffin. "It is almost as good as the strawberry muffins my mother used to make."

Joyce smiled at her, "Thank you darling."

They fell into easy conversation talking about the weather and other things. Joyce soon wandered out of the room making her way down the hall to the small chapel. Seeing his mother leave the room, Booth turned and looked at Brennan.

"Booth, find your mother and tell her thank you for me again. I believe that Parker and I have some reading to catch up on." Brennan scooted slowly over, making room for Parker. She reached for the book they started so many months ago. Booth listened for a couple of moments before heading out to search out his mother.

He stopped by the NICU first, glancing in on his son who was resting peacefully. He sent a small smile to the nurse who motioned that everything was okay for the time being. He set further down the hall to the chapel. He opened the heavy wooden doors and settled in next to his mother who was murmuring the last decade of the rosary she was saying. He joined her.

Upon completion of the prayers, Booth turned and looked at his mother. "Are you alright Mom?"

"I'm just so worried for you Honey. Parker is a handful, Connor is sick, your partner is still battling her demons, and you aren't taking care of yourself." She reached over and held his hand.

"Mom, I'll be alright. It is just a rough couple of months. I can handle it all." He assured her.

"You don't have to handle it all on your own Seeley. I'm here for you." She whispered softly.

Booth turned his eyes toward the crucifix that adorned the wall. "I just don't know how to help her Mom. She is so scared. I'm so scared for Connor. He has a brain bleed." He told her. Tears started welling up in his eyes. "I just don't know what to do."

"Oh Honey." She wrapped her arms around her son, holding him. Assuring him that everything would be okay.

A couple of minutes later, he shook himself from her embrace. "Thanks Mom."

"Anytime Seeley. Let's go see your beautiful baby."

Booth nooded, standing up from the pew, shaking the soreness from his body. He watched as his mother left the chapel, marveling in all the strength that she possessed. He knew that if Connor inherited even a quarter of her strength that he would be just fine.

**AN: So I wasn't so happy with all of the times I wrote this chapter, so hopefully this will make up for the fact that I have waited so long to post this installment. I am thinking in the next chapter that it will be time for Brennan to be released home - but I haven't decided where yet - let me know what you think! Like it, hate it? Drop me a line so I know that people are still out there reading this.**


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty:

Booth stared into the incubator watching Connor take slow and steady breaths. "Hey there Connor." He placed a stuffed animal on top. "Daddy's here." He reached in a gently picked him up. He brought him slowly over to the rocking chair, resting Connor's ear close to his heart. "I would trade places with you in a heartbeat if I could." He rocked him slowly. It was a long night. He had troubles with his breathing again and had to be hooked up to his oxygen again. "You have to get stronger for Mommy. She wants so much for you to get better, to get stronger so we can take you home."

"Seeley . . ." Dr. Dean walked into the room placing Connor's chart on top of the incubator. "He will get stronger, he is a fighter, just like his father."

Booth looked up. "The results of the DNA test are in?"

"Yes. We put a rush on it so we could know medical history. You are his father Agent Booth."

Booth stroked Connor's back gently. "Did you hear that Baby, I'm officially your Dad. No one can take you away from me now. Connor Christopher Booth."

"Would you like to sign his birth certificate?" Dr. Dean asked him.

"I would like to do it with his mother present. I think that it would help her out right about now."

Dr. Dean smiled, "I understand. I'll call up there and have the nurses bring her down. Congratulations again Seeley."

"Did you hear that little man?" Booth continued to speak softly to him. "I always knew you were mine. I knew it in my heart, it didn't matter what DNA you have, it is all just icing on the cake."

Brennan entered the room slowly, signs of color were returning to her once grayish appearance. He made a mental note to make sure that when they were all better that he was going to take them to the beach. They were all in need of a little bit of rest and relaxation.

"You are looking better Bones." He commented, noticing she was already putting back on some weight as well.

"Thanks Booth. I finally feel better today. They finally unhooked me from the IVs last night." She sighed looking at her small son. "How's Connor doing?" Brennan addressed both Booth and Dr. Dean simultaneously.

"The rest of his test came out normal. The bleed in his brain is shrinking and should eventually resolve without any permanent effects. He is steadily gaining weight and he is having less pulmonary episodes. All in all I say you have a brave little man. Not something that we would have expected from a twenty-four weeker. I just got finished telling your partner that we have the results to the DNA test."

Brennan looked at Booth expectantly. "I was waiting to sign the birth certificate until you came down. It's official Temperance."

"Really?" Her voice cracked, revealing all the emotions she was holding up inside. Booth crossed the room to where she stood, wrapping him up as well as he could. His shoulder had been aching from the shrapnel wound. She noticed and gave him a glance over. "What did you do to your shoulder?"

"A house exploded and a piece of wood got lodged in there. Nothing to worry about. I was supposed to have it in a sling, but I couldn't do that and take care of Connor and Parker. It will be fine."

--

Booth sat at his office. He had to switch to light duty days, which meant training courses and paperwork. He was not allowed to do any fieldwork until his shoulder was cleared and that was okay with him for the time being. He didn't want to go back into the field without Bones anyway.

He leaned back looking at the new pictures of Parker and Connor that his mother had taken at their last visit to the hospital. Parker was growing nicely into an older brother. He made a mental note to take his oldest son out for ice cream later on during the week.

"Booth." Sully addressed him as he walked through the door. "It's good to have you back in the office."

"Thanks." Booth replied, putting down his pen. "Just finishing up a couple of things."

"I heard from your mom that the results of the DNA test came in and that Connor is officially yours." Sully told him. "Congratulations."

"Thanks Man." Booth's face lit up, smiling, thinking about his son. "Dr. Dean just called with a great update. He was able to make it through the night again without any major pulmonary episodes."

"That's great." Sully took a seat, loosening up his tie. "How is Tempe doing? Have you told her how you feel yet?"

Booth shifted in his seat, "I can see that going over quite well. Hey Bones, I have been in love with you for years." Booth paused. "Miller took away so much from us. He kept her from having a great life, a beautiful pregnancy. I don't even know where we stand anymore. Before he took her, we were on our way to something beautiful, and now we have a son who is sick and we are just trying to keep our heads above water."

He threw picked up his coffee cup and took a long swing from it. It had grown cold from neglect. He put it down and stared at the offending cup.

"Just hang on. Don't let her push you away like she did me. You two have a chance to catch fire." Sully advised his friend, standing up.

"Have you made any headway with Miller, or getting him to name his accomplice?"

"Not yet. He has basically been sitting there, not saying anything." Sully shook his head.

"Let me know if anything changes." Booth requested.

"Yeah man." Sully replied walking out, catching another agent.

Booth picked up coffee cup and made his way toward the kitchen to warm up the sludge that had somehow replaced his coffee. He punched a couple of buttons on the microwave, staring into the lights that radiated off.

He barely registered his boss coming in to grab is lunch until he realized that Cullen was talking to him. "Hang in there Booth."

Booth looked up started, knowing that he probably looked like the walking dead. "Thanks Sir."

"Just take care of your partner and your son. I don't think anybody will notice prolonged lunches and early days." Cullen advised. "We need you and her to be on your "A" game. The FBI needs you and her back. It has been getting much to dull around her." He informed his subordinate, taking a bite out of his sandwich.

"Why is it that everyone has been telling me that?"

"Because your partner is one of the best looking, ass-kicking, scientist we know. She is singularly one of the most brilliant minds that we can have on your side, and she has been missed." Cullen praised her. Booth smiled, hearing his cell phone ring. Cullen waved him to answer it.

"Agent Booth . . ." Booth listened a couple of moments, hanging up the phone. "Sir, it was Angela, she is at the hospital with Bones . . ."

"Go ahead and go Booth. I'm sure what you have left isn't anything that can't wait until later."

"Thank you." Booth hurried out the door, ignoring the worried looks of his coworkers as he ran out the door.

--

Booth wandered down the hall, coming up to Brennan's room. He heard her screeching hysterically, and he knew that he needed to calm her down before they committed her to the psych ward. He walked in, finding tears streaming down her face.

"Bones?" He walked over to her, wrapping his arms around her. Sobs wracked through her body, hiccupping softly into his chest. "What's going on Angela?"

"They want to release her. The doctors said that she is physically okay now that her fluids and electrolytes are back up. The incision from the c-section healed nicely. They still have her on some antibiotics for the infection in her ankle, but other than that she is fit to go home." Angela explained to him.

"That's great." Booth told her. Brennan shook her head violently into his chest.

"Who is going to look after Connor? I can't leave him all alone." Brennan told him. "I won't leave him."

"Honey . . ." Booth tried to formulate words that would bring her comfort, knowing that she had abandonment issues, but the right words just couldn't come to mind. "Connor will know that you love him, and that it isn't your choice to leave him. But we can't take him home right now, he needs to get bigger and stronger before he can come home."

"I know that." She stifled another sob. "I just feel like a failure already. What mother can leave their son behind?"

Booth sighed, "Rebecca did." He answered softly. "And sometimes it isn't by choice. Mother's do what is best for their children, and you getting better is what Connor needs from you right now."

Booth took her hand and led her down the hall to the NICU. He placed her in front of the glass, putting his hand on her shoulders, softly needing the knots away. She stared at the little boy in the incubator.

"He is getting stronger. He is part you and part me. He comes from really good stock on both sides." Booth said, trying to bring her some confidence. "It's not like we aren't going to see him every day."

"But I won't be here right down the hall anymore. What if something happens?"

"I have a siren, I can get here pretty fast." Booth cracked a smile at her. He led her down the hall to the elevators to where Angela was waiting with the box full of her stuff.

"How am I going to leave him?" She whispered softly.

Booth tilted her chin up and found himself looking into her deep cerulean eyes. "You are going to take a deep breath and you are going to put one foot in front of the other." His hand intertwined with hers as he gently led her to his car.

**AN: I hope you all enjoyed the latest installment. Please reveiw it rocks my socks.**


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty One:

Brennan stood staring at her door. She closed her eyes trying to think of the last time that she saw her apartment. Angela opened the door. Parker had made her a banner which read "Welcome Home Bones!" on it. Booth smiled looking at the familiar child-like handwriting.

"Parker wanted to make you something. Mrs. Booth stopped by the office today to give it to me to hang up. I'll leave the two of you to get settled in." Angela quietly let herself out of the apartment.

Booth stood quietly watching her move around her place. "Hodgins had his housekeeping staff come by and clean the place up for you." He informed her as Brennan looked around her place. It seemed that she was trying to get familiar with her surroundings again.

Brennan nodded moving slowly around, touching some of her familiar artifacts. "Temperance . . ."

"Booth . . ." Brennan started, holding up her hand to forestall him. He nodded, letting her have her go first. "Booth, I know that you don't like the fact that I am going to try to stay here on my own, but I have to try."

He nodded. "I don't think you should stay here on your own. At least let me spend the night." Booth insisted.

She stared at him, longing to let him know that she wanted him there, that she only felt safe with him. "But then I would learn to depend on you, and then what?" She asked him. "Miller stole so much from us. He stole what could have been a wonderful relationship. I don't know who I am anymore."

He looked at her. He understood what she was going through for he had gone through the same thing after his imprisonment overseas. Booth nodded, walking over to her. "You don't have to do it alone. I can help you."

"I have to try Booth." She told him.

"If you need me I can be here in 15 minutes, alright?" He assured her, as well as himself. Everything in him was telling him to stay, not to leave her.

"Booth, it's a thirty minute drive." Brennan smiled slightly. "And I don't have my cell phone anymore."

He pulled one out handing it to her. "I had it turned back on. It's your old number, I'm programmed in as speed dial 1." She accepted the device.

"Booth I think I will be just fine."

"Bones listen," He sighed. "Miller never named his accomplice. We don't know who he is. He is still out there. I have a car coming by to take sit out in front of your building for the next couple of days just to be sure."

She nodded. She walked him over to the door. As he went to leave, he turned around, engulfing her as well as he could with his arm. "We will get through this Bones. I'll be by tomorrow to take you to go see Connor."

She gave him a half smile as she shut the door. She immediately regretted her decision as she heard the echo of the door closing. Brennan was alone again.

--

Booth drove back to his place, half worried, half angry, mostly sad. Booth knew what it was like to have to reintegrate into society, and he knew that she would need help. He entered the door, slamming it shut.

"Seeley Booth the door didn't do anything to you." His mother scolded him from the kitchen.

"Sorry Mom." He apologized sheepishly. "Is Parker already in bed?" She nodded, pulling out his plate from the oven.

"You couldn't convince her to come back with you could you." Joyce stated.

"No." Booth sighed, digging into his food. "I'm just so worried about her Mom. I know how hard it is to try to get back to what your life was. People who know you just keep staring, waiting to see what is going to set you off; they walk on eggshells."

"Seeley, your father and I just didn't know what to do. I'm sorry that we couldn't be better for you back then. We did our best." Joyce informed him knowing that he was speaking of his own reintegration. It had pained her everyday to watch him struggle. She saw the difference that the war did to him in his eyes. It was like a totally different person.

"Mom that comment wasn't anything toward you. It was your support that help me find who I was to become." He explained to her. He heard the sound of thunder off in the distance. "I better run outside and put Parker's bike up before it gets all rusted."

"You never put your toys up either when you were his age." She smiled at her son, giving him a kiss on the cheek before making her way up the stairs. He sighed, hearing the rain pelt against the windows, knowing that he would have to go save a bicycle.

Booth ran into the unrelenting rain as he grabbed the bicycle off the front lawn. The rain was coming down in buckets now soaking Booth completely to the bone. He sat on the bumper of his car watching the rain come down in buckets. He moved to put Parker's bike up on the hooks, groaning as he put the bikes up on the rack. He stripped off his wet t-shirt that was painfully rubbing up against his stitches, he watched the rain for a couple more minutes, hoping that Brennan was okay. He pushed off the bumper, making his way toward the access door to his house. He reached up to hit the garage door when he heard someone approaching.

"I gave you that scar last Halloween." Brennan told him softly. She reached out and touched his side. "You must have been a great sniper, you didn't even hear me coming." She let out a small laugh.

"I knew it was you Bones." He turned around looking at her. She was soaked head to toe.

"How did you know?"

"You favor your left leg when you walk, you smell like lavender and vanilla." He waited a moment, touching her hair. "You use Aveda rosemary and mint shampoo. You have a tiny scar above your eye." He inhaled deeply. "I missed you so much." He saw a bolt of lightening streak through the sky followed by a clap of thunder. She jumped slightly toward him. "Hey are you okay?"

"The power went out over at my place. It was so dark, and the shadows were moving toward me, getting ready to engulf me. All I wanted to do was to be here with you. I didn't want to be alone anymore." The storm was worsening around them. He looped an arm around her, leading her into the house.

"Bones, you are home here."

--

Booth led her inside, setting her down at the table. He heard his mother upstairs, rummaging around, he heard Parker getting up to get his drink of water.

"Do you want some coffee?"

"Yeah. That would be great." She smiled at him. Booth turned to the pantry making himself busy. He heard Parker entering the kitchen.

"Bones!" He ran over beside her. "You're all wet."

"I just came over and it was raining." She explained to him.

"You need to get in the shower and get warm." Parker demanded over her. He reached over and grabbed her hand. "I'll show you how to get the water just the right temperature."

"Yeah Bones, go grab a quick shower. I'll find something for you to wear, and the coffee will be ready. Parker as soon as you are done helping Bones, come grab your water and go back to bed. You have school tomorrow." Booth told both of them.

He heard Parker groan but the tone he had used was one that Parker knew meant business. "Okay Daddy."

He smiled at his son and partner and quickly continued to fix a light dinner and coffee for the two of them. He knew it was going to be a long night for them.

**AN: So I wasn't so happy with all of the times I wrote this chapter, so hopefully this will make up for the fact that I have waited so long to post this installment. I am trying to figure out where to go. I had everything planned up until the hospital release. I am planning on Booth/Brennan dancing around their feelings together, trying co-parenting, and an eventual case that will help wrap everything up, but it is slow going. I hope you guys like epic stories, and that there are people out there still reading this one!**


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